


You Are Watching: GHOST KING

by Goggles_McGee



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Multi, Nico needs a break, Paranormal shit goes down, There are other relationships but the main one is solangelo, Two cuties being absolutely oblivious, Two cuties being stupidly cute, Two cuties mutual pining after one another, We all need a break
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2018-08-11 12:31:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 29
Words: 42,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7892413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goggles_McGee/pseuds/Goggles_McGee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The famous YouTuber by the name of Ghost King is all anyone and everyone talk about nowadays. Perhaps it's because of the mystery of him and how he remains anonymous in his videos with just a full zip up hoodie with a skeletal design on the front, or maybe it's the fact that he does paranormal investigations? Who knows! </p>
<p>Nico di Angelo never thought that he would become famous for his odd ability to see and communicate with ghosts. And he certainly did not think that he would fall in love with his new friend, Will Solace. But hey that's life! Will he be able to keep his feelings and other life a secret from his crush? Or will Will's own feelings and curiosity expose everything? </p>
<p>Stay Tuned!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Oh my god did you watch the new episode of Ghost King?”

 

“Yes!! It was so scary! I nearly fainted!”

 

“Oh please that shit is fake and you know it!”

 

“He shoots the episodes live Damian! How could it possibly be fake?” 

 

“I wonder where he’ll go explore next? Maybe that old house up on Simpkins Drive?”

 

This, among other things, was a common topic that floated through the halls, in every classroom, and the lunch hall in Demigod High School. Odd name, I know. At first it was just Half Blood High School, in close proximity with Jupiter High School , but after resolving a small (not small at all) fued the two schools merged together. 

 

Anyways. The YouTuber known as xXxGHOSTKINGxXx was something short of a hot commodity. He had millions of suscribers, close to a billion actually, he would go around his town and sometimes other cities if he could to explore supposedly haunted establishments, kinda like Ghost Adventures, he always wore a large sweater that hid his frame, but it also had a hood that you could zip up to reveal the skull design. Which is how he always wore it, along with matching skeleton hand gloves with the fingers cut off. Besides the white skeleton design on the sweater, he wore all black. And he always had on a voice modifier so no one could actually hear his voice. 

 

The myserty of who he was, was part of his appeal. There was also the fact he claimed to be a medium, a very powerful and sensitive medium. He was like a spirit magnet wherever he went. 

 

So yeah, he was well known. 

 

“Hey, they’re talking about you.” Jason whispered to his friend beside him who had his black worn out boots resting on his cluttered desk, tilted back in his chair with his arms crossed and eyes closed as his chin rested on his chest. 

 

He opened one eye to peak at the boy whispering to him and let out a deep sigh. “I know, I hear them, Jason, I’m not deaf.” He grumbled out before yawning into his hand. 

 

Jason smiled knowing his friend’s tone was not filled with real agitation, he was just tired from a night of ghost hunting. 

 

“At least lunch is after this class.”

 

The dark haired boy nodded slowly trying to stay awake, but when you’re up till 3 A.M. in an abandoned hospital getting proof of ghosts existence, well it wasn’t easy to say the least. 

 

“Hey Neeks!” A familiar (annoying) voice pulled him from his almost sleep. 

 

Neeks, aka Nico, once again opened his eyes and huffed out in annoyance. “Don’t call me that Jackson.” 

 

Percy Jackson, Captain of the swim team, everyone’s friend, and hot as hell, stood before Nico in all his gorgeous annoying glory. That was a friendship many questioned, so was the friendship between Mr. Golden Boy himself, Jason Grace, but those facts are beside the matter. 

 

“Always a ray of sunshine.”

 

“Want do you want Percy?”

 

“Did you watch the new episode of Ghost King last night?”

 

“Of course I did, why do you think I’m so tired?”

 

“It was so awesome!” 

 

And there was no stopping Percy from blabbering on and on and on now. 

 

Yes Nico was the Ghost King, but very few people actually knew this. Percy was not one of them. Who did know was his family, Jason and his girlfriend Piper, and Nico’s best friend Reyna. He preferred to keep it a secret, he was never one for wanting attention. He was the one in the back of the classroom hoping to blend in with the shadows which he kinda did with all the black he wore. 

 

But hearing how so many people liked him, liked what he did, well, he would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little bit proud or happy. 

 

“Who’s the Ghost King?” A new voice asked. A voice Nico generally tried to avoid, not because he hated the person the voice belonged to, but because he was crushing on that person, and had been for the longest time, ever since that person transferred to the school last month. 

 

Percy turned to gape at Will Solace, Sunshine boy extraordinaire. 

 

“You’ve never heard of the Ghost King!?”

 

“How could I not? He’s talked about almost everywhere. But I mean I’ve never watched his videos. I like to go to bed at reasonable hours.”

 

“Dork.” Nico mumbled out with a soft chuckle, but immediately stopped when blue eyes locked on him and shot him a playful glare. 

 

“Call me what you will, di Angelo, but a healthy sleep schedule is vital for you. And yes, you especially. You never sleep!”

 

“I sleep.”

 

“Oh please.”

 

“I do!”

 

Percy of course interrupted their banter in favor of whipping out his phone and pulling Will into their small circle of people. Really if the teacher was here, Nico was sure he wouldn’t have been able to get the attention of the class back at all. 

 

“Here this is the first episode. Educate yourself child!” Percy declared as he handed Will one earphone as he slipped the other into his ear and pressed play. 

 

“Percy. Lunch is in 10 minutes. That video is 30 minutes long. You guys won’t finish.” Jason tried to reason as he put his stuff into his backpack, and doing the same for Nico. As if Nico couldn’t do it himself, but Jason had this thing about getting out of the classroom first so he always packed his and Nico’s stuff so they could get out of whatever class they had together efficiently. 

 

Percy paused the video with a small whine from Will, that definitely didn’t make Nico blush. “Fair point Grace! How about you eat lunch with us Will? Then I could show you more videos!”

 

Will smiled and nodded. “Sounds good.”

 

Oh Nico was going to kill Percy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's talk about Ghost King becoming a TV show at lunch, and Nico knows it's a joke but he starts to seriously think about it!

All throughout lunch, Will and Percy watched the first episode of Ghost King, the blond was so intrigued by him, and quickly decided he was going to watch more episodes once he got home. Percy whole heartedly encouraged him and told him to text him so they could talk about them together. 

 

“You know….the episodes are pretty long.” Will commented as he munched away on his salad like the health nerd he was. 

 

“Yup, the newer ones are about an hour each.” Piper chimed in before she went back to talking to Annabeth and Juniper about some new movie her dad was going to be in. 

 

Grover nodded as he ran a hand through him unruly hair, but two strands, without fail, always stood up. Percy joked that they looked like antlers or something. “They’re about the length of a TV show already.” He commented off handedly as he stole a fry off Percy’s tray and smirked when his best friend glared at him. 

 

“He should have his own TV show.” Will piped up as he nudged Nico who was sitting beside him. “Don'tcha think?”

 

“That would be kinda cool.” He agreed as he did his best to not blush, he had a rep to protect. 

 

Okay not really but he was known in the school as the mysterious but cool emo. So he was popular as a relative term. People knew him even without him being friends with two of the most popular jocks. 

 

“That would actually be really cool!” Jason suddenly remarked with a mischievous glint in his eye. “It would probably be a lot easier on his fans and him if he had a set time to broadcast his show, people wouldn’t have to be awake that late because he could prerecord.”

 

“But people would question the authenticity of it. More so then they already do.” Reyna added with a knowing glance passed between her and Nico and Jason. 

 

“Reyna’s right. The whole point of him doing live recordings is to show that it’s not fake. That whatever he records is happening in real time.” The Italian stated as he he happily took a chip that Will was offering him. Completely ignoring how his heart fluttered when their fingers brushed against each other. 

 

Nico had to admit, having a TV show did sound pretty cool, and Jason was right about the reasonable hours and such. But he really didn’t want people to thing everything was fake, he was never one to care about what people thought of him, but this was one he did. 

 

Because he actually saw ghosts, and some did look normal but others were seen in the condition that they had died in and that was honestly horrifying, he could hear them, whispering, yelling, screaming, and he could talk to them. Some were happy to communicate without having to use much of their energy, others could not care less that he spoke. And he could sense their presences. And could tell how dangerous they were. 

 

Contrary to his fans beliefs, he could not summon them whenever he felt like it. That seemed to be a common fan theory. 

 

Another fan theory was that he was actually female. Which he did not entirely dislike, it helped pull suspicion off of him more so than usual, plus it was a pretty neat theory. 

 

“Pipes? You okay honey?” Jason’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts as the bespectacled blond was staring at his girlfriend whom was thinking rather hard it would seem. 

 

“You know….a TV show is actually possible. I bet the fans would love it, honestly I’ve heard some say they wanted it. But I mean, I could talk to my dad. I’m sure he would love to help out Ghost King, he’s a big fan of the show. ” the beautiful girl mumbled out with consideration. 

 

Before anyone could agree or disagree the bell for the end of lunch rang out obnoxiously loud. 

 

They all cleaned up and said bye to one another as they headed off to their respective classes. 

 

Nico headed off to Dance 1 with Piper as Percy, Jason, Reyna, and Annabeth went to gym, Grover was off to English II, Juniper was going to botany, and Will was going to Anatomy. 

 

Yes Nico was in Dance. It was a better option than gym, plus he did fencing outside of school. And another good thing was that he had the class with Piper. He liked when he had classes with his friends it made eveything a whole lot easier. He especially liked dance because his half sister had that class as well. 

 

Once him and Piper stepped into the dance room to drop off their backpacks so they could go change, Nico recognized the dark unruly curled mass of no return right away. 

 

“Hazel!” He called. Said girl turned to look at him, her gold eyes fixated on him as she smiled. 

 

“Nico!” She quickly ran over for a hug. He happily embraced her thankfully smaller frame, he was known for being so short, and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. 

 

The dark haired italian was so excited to tell her and their older sister about the conversation they missed at lunch and to get their opinion on the TV show idea.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will's gettin' suspicious XD

Once Dance had ended, Nico quickly changed out of his dance clothes and into his everyday clothing.

Dance had been exhausting today, but Nico loved it. Especially since him and Hazel were always partners, the perks of being short. ‘One of the only perks.’ Nico thought with a sigh as he finished tying his shoes and slung his backpack over his shoulder. He ran a hand through his sweat soaked hair and cringed slightly when his fingers caught a knot. With one last glance in the mirror on his way out of the boys dressing room and a wave to Mitchell, Nico made his way to the front of the performing arts building and waited for his sister so they could head over to their last class of the day. History.

As he waited he thought about the conversation at lunch. He thought about the pros and cons but ultimately decided to get his families opinions, he was sure Hazel and Persephone would be all for it, while his father and Bianca would be a bit hesitant. But still he wanted to hear what they thought. But soon his thoughts somehow drifted off to a certain blond haired, blue eyed, gorgeous boy.

Will Solace.

Gosh, even just thinking about him made his knees feel weak!

Will had that strange power over him, to make his knees feel weak, mouth go dry, blush into oblivion, and his hands sweat.

Nico was no fool, he knew this was more than a simple crush like the one he had had on Percy, but he couldn’t bring himself to do anything about it.

He didn’t want to ruin the friendship he had with the golden haired boy, but sometimes he thought that Will was interested in him too.

Little things like lingering touches and soft smiles.

Yeah….those were great.

Then his thoughts drifted to the many faces of Will Solace. From his overly happy smiles, to the down in the dumps frowns, and to the anger infused teeth bared.

He made a cute face at lunch, Nico remembered. He had been watching the first episode of Ghost King with Percy and when he heard the scream that Nico had his eyes got wide, and he jumped a little.

It was adorable!

Much too soon, Nico was begrudgingly pulled from his thoughts by his sister grabbing his hand and dragging him to their next class.

After the class was over, Nico and Hazel walked out to the parent pick up section of the school and stood around to wait for their father, or Persephone, they didn’t really know which one was coming for them.

“- and it was so nice! He brought me roses and everything!” Hazel explained with bright eyes and a wide smile.

She had been explaining her latest date with her boyfriend Frank as they waited when Nico felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see the very boy who plagued his thoughts.

“Hey Solace.”

“Hi you two! How was your classes?” Will asked as he took his hand off of Nico’s shoulder and stood beside the smaller teen.

Hazel smiled at Will, “they were good, History was a bit boring though.”

“Isn’t it always?” The blond supplied with a laugh.

“How was yours?” Nico asked as he adjusted the strap on his backpack and groaned at the weight of it.

“I got in trouble….but other than that it was good.”

“You? You Mr. Goody Two-Shoes, got in trouble? What for?” Nico laughed out.

Will huffed and mumbled something under his breath. Hazel smirked softly and sing-songed, “what was that? We couldn’t hear yoooouuuuuu.”

Another huff and a sheepish grin came from the blond as he blushed and shrugged. “I was watching the second episode of Ghost King and my teacher caught me. I couldn’t help it though! His videos are so creepy and suspenseful and awesome!” Will lamented.

Hazel and Nico shared a knowing glance and laughed.

“Yeah. They’re pretty awesome. We watch them all the time.” Hazel commented just as her phone dinged, signalling a text.

“You know. He kinda reminds me of you Nico.”

“Who does?”

“The Ghost King. He reminds me of you.”

Nico felt his heart skip a beat, on the outside he held his face a nonchalance and amusement but on the inside he was freaking the fuck out.

“Oh? How so?”

There was something in Will’s eyes that he simply couldn’t put his finger on, those breath taking blue eyes raked over Nico in a way that made him have to hold down a shiver.

Will opened his mouth to reply when Hazel interrupted after replying to the text. “Nico, Jules-Albert is picking us up, and he’s here.”

“Oh, okay. Um bye, Will…see you tomorrow.” Nico hastily said as he and Hazel started walking to their families black BMW as Will called back, “See you tomorrow di Angelo!”

Once in the safety of their car, Nico let out a sigh of relief.

“What was that all about?”

“Nothing. Oh, I have something to discuss with the family when everyone is home for dinner.”

“What is it?”

“You’ll see.”

“Is it bad?”

“No.”

“Good?”

“Hazel.”

“Well is it?”

“Maybe.”

“Nico!” Hazel whined as Nico laughed as he swatted her hand that was going to poke him away. “You know I hate when you do that!”

“Do what?”

“Tell me you’re going to tell me something later but don’t tell me!”

“I’m going to tell you. Just not until later.”

“Uuuggggghhhhhhhh.” Hazel dramatically groaned as she leaned on Nico. He chuckled at her antics and kissed the top of her head.

“I promise you’ll know soon.”

“Fine.” She grumbled but made no move to get off him, and he was perfectly okay with that.

“Does Bianca know?”

“Not yet.”

“Does dad?”

“Nope.”

“Does Per-”

“Hazel! Stop asking questions.” Nico ordered playfully.

“Okay.”

….

….

….

….

“Is it boy problems?”

“Hazel!”<


	4. Chapter 4

Once dinner rolled around Nico felt a bit nervous to bring up the conversation at lunch, but he knew that if he didn’t bring it up he would have to face the wrath of Hazel……never again.

Last time that happened she nearly broke his nose, all because he accidentally ripped the arm of her doll off when they were younger, it was about a month after she had moved in with them. But that was a long time ago.

“Nico? Are you okay honey?” Persephone asked as she passed him the garlic bread, he gratefully took one and gave his step mom a small smile.

“M'good. I actually wanted to talk to you all about something.”

That got everyone’s attention. Hazel looked at him expectantly with an eager smile, she had been waiting for a whole what? 3 hours?, Bianca set down her fork and looked at with with a curious smile, as did Persephone, his father raised an eyebrow at him and gave him a look that said, ‘go on.’

Nico cleared his throat before he began, “Well at lunch today my friend Will-”

“That blond one?” Persephone interrupted.

“Yes. Anyways-”

“Isn’t he Apollo’s boy?” His father this time.

“Yeah, but anyways-”

“He’s nice dad. Nothing like his dad.” Bianca reassured after noticing the look of distaste on her father’s face.

“Anyways!” Nico said louder with a slight pout. Thankfully that got their attention yet again. “Anyways….during lunch Will was watching the first episode of Ghost King, and he made a comment about how Ghost King should have a TV show. Well everyone really liked the idea, then Piper said her father would probably be more than happy to help set it up if, you know, Ghost King would ever want to….and I wanted to know what you guys think. So?”

It was quiet for all of two seconds before the table became a frenzy of talking over one another. Nico couldn’t make out what anyone was saying, but could see smiles.

Hades helped regain control as he cleared his throat and looked at his son. “It’s a big step from that You Tub son.”

“It’s YouTube dad! And that sounds like so much fun Nico!” Hazel exclaimed excitedly as she leaned over the table and grabbed his hands.

“That’s a big responsibility Nico.” Bianca reasoned as she sat sideways in her chair to look at her younger brother.

“But it would be a better option than him staying up so late to shoot his videos. Those bags are getting worse!” Persephone voiced in as she too leaned over the table and grasped Nico’s cheeks to get a closer look at him.

Nico felt himself blush, his family was always like this….well not always…..but he liked how it was now, even if his family loved to embarrass him, and they were a bit handsy, especially Persephone, but he honestly loved it. He loved that he got along with her now, he loved the fact that Bianca came back from that camp she went to even though it seemed she wouldn’t come back after the death of their mother, he loved that his dad was around more, and he loved that he gained another sister. It was wonderful.

He could see his dad holding back his laughter.

“Sephy, Darling, let him go.”

Persephone pouted but let his poor cheeks go. “I’m just saying.”

Hades smiled fondly at his wife before looking at his son once again. “Bianca and Persephone are both right. It would be a lot easier on you, what with an actual set programming time, you are losing a lot of sleep, and it also will be a bigger responsibility. But it’s your choice Nico.”

Nico smiled but the smile slipped off his face when he began to think about it in detail. “It would be great…..but wouldn’t making it a show make people even more skeptical, I go to great lengths to show just how real everything I experience is….I just don’t want people to doubt it.”

“People are always going to be skeptical Nico.” Bianca spoke up as she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and gave it a soft squeeze. “You can’t please everyone.”

“Your sister is right, whatever you choose to do, just know we’re behind you every step of the way.” His father said with a slight smile.

“I think….I think I’ll do it. Or at least discuss it with Mr. McLean. I’ll just have to keep the voice modifier on when I talk to him.” Nico mused out loud.

Dinner carried on after that with the usual, ‘how’s school?’, or ‘how’s work?’ Just stuff like that. It was nice, and dinner had been great, probably because Bianca cooked….no offense to Persephone, but that woman could not cook for her life.

Back in his room, Nico took in a deep breath and called Piper.

“Pipes? Hey. I’ve got a question to ask.”

(( I imagine Hades always calling Modern Apps or technology by the wrong names, he tries to be the cool hip dad but he’s just clueless.))


	5. Chapter 5

Another late night for Nico resulted in a very tired Nico the next day. Piper had not been kidding when she said her father was a big fan of Ghost King. He really, really was. And last night when he Skyped them both to discuss the TV show business (in disguise with his voice modifier on of course) it turned into a very long conversation. The beginning was of course about the show but then it got a bit off track. And didn’t end until one in the morning.

He was sooooooooo fucking tired.

So really, it wasn’t his fault that he fell asleep during the day. Multiple times, in fact.

At lunch he notified Jason that he was going to take a nap so to not worry that he wasn’t at their usual table. Jason of course understood since he did talk to Piper for a bit last night. So that’s how Nico found himself sleepily looking for a good place to catch some Z’s. Eventually he settled for the Demeter Garden that students knew about but it was slightly hidden between the science building and visual arts building so he figured he would be mostly alone.

So he threw his backpack on the ground underneath the shade of a weeping willow, honestly this garden was more like a humongous green house than a garden, and promptly laid his head on it and got comfortable. He slipped off his jacket just to drape it over himself like a blanket as he curled up into a little ball of sleepiness. A content sigh left his lips as sweet sweet sleep pulled him in.

___________________________

Will had been talking to his anatomy teacher about the upcoming project they were going to do so he had already been late to lunch with his friends so he had decided to just have lunch there in the science building, well more specifically in Demeter’s Garden. Seriously this school was too obsessed with Greek and Roman myths.

Him and Nico often talked and complained about it actually. Especially since both their fathers were named after Greek gods, actually their group of friend’s parent’s were all named after Greek/Roman gods or goddesses or heroes. Nico once joked that it was a requirement to get into the school.

Thinking of Nico brought a fond smile to Will’s lips.

He liked him. Like, really liked him. And how could he not? Nico was great! He was funny, in a dark humor kind of way at times, he was smart, like ridiculously so, and it certainly didn’t hurt that he was so gorgeous.

That thought made a sigh escape Will’s lips as he walked around the garden in search of a bench or at least a shady place to eat his lunch. But then he spotted something underneath the weeping willow tree.

He got closer and was utterly shocked to see the boy of his very thoughts.

‘Speak of the devil, no…angel. God….I’m glad he can’t read my mind. Even I know that that was cheesy.’ Will thought as he looked down at the sleeping italian and smiled.

He was so adorable! He was laying on his side curled up into loose ball, his messy hair was splashed against his pale skin and covering his face more so than usual, Will could barely see his eyelashes, which we so long Will thought, and his mouth was slightly parted. And boy did he look comfortable. But what made Will worry was the dark circles he could barely make out. They seemed worse than yesterday. Well he couldn’t know for sure anyway since Nico’s dark hair was almost completely covering his eyes so Will did something he would deny. He sat in front of the Italian and brushed the hair out of his face.

And he would so deny the fact that he gasped softly at the sight. Nico was just so beautiful. Will sometimes had a hard time controlling his thoughts and actions when he looked at Nico, or heard him speaking, or okay, whenever or whatever Nico did something. He was in deep.

But sure enough, Will was right. The dark circles were worse than yesterday. Had he had another late night? Maybe he just couldn’t sleep? Or maybe he was being a little shit and playing video games late last night even though Will has told him, on multiple occasions, that that was bad for his health! But really, if the blond were to tell him that today, well he would be a hypocrite since he stayed up really late watching more Ghost King videos. He wasn’t even close to catching up with everyone since he had a lot of videos. A loooooottttttttt. It was ridiculous.

But they were so goooooooood! Will loved them. They made him stay on the edge of seat, hugging a pillow, with his heart racing the entire time he watched them. They were amazing. But he meant what he said yesterday. Ghost King reminded him of Nico. They’re heights were the same, his attitude during the videos was strangely close to Nico’s as well. And just the small things he did made Will think of Nico whenever he watched the videos. Will was barely on episode 8 and during all those episodes all he could see was Nico.

He even thought that perhaps Nico himself was the Ghost King, it wasn’t all that far fetched of an idea he thought so he decided to watch Nico more closely, more than usual. And when he brought up that Ghost King reminded Will of Nico, well he noticed the slight twitch of Nico’s right eye, he always did that when he was trying not to let someone see his surprise or nervousness. Now it could have been that he was just surprised at the fact Will thought about him or that someone would compare him to a famous YouTuber, or he was nervous because Will found him out. He couldn’t know for sure.

Will snapped out of thoughts in favor of going back to worrying about his crush. Who was still sound asleep. Will bit his lip because he really didn’t want to disturb him but it was also very unhealthy that Nico hadn’t eaten. So the blond took in a deep breath and began to gently shake the sleeping boy awake.

_______________________

Nico let out an annoyed groan and tried to burrow further into his makeshift blanket but someone had taken it from him.

“Hey, Neeks, you got to wake up and eat something. Come on Death Boy, I know you’re tired but you do gotta eat.” A very familiar voice cooed softly.

Nico let out a reluctant groan as he forced his eyes open. (Will would say they fluttered open) and sat up slowly. He looked around blearily before rubbing his eyes to try and make himself wake up more. Once he felt he was at least awake enough to make a comprehensible sentence he looked at the alarmingly gorgeous boy before him. “What are you doing here Solace?” He mumbled, but it came out more like, ’ Wha oo oing ere Solaccccce?’ And Will was absolutely besotted.

Once Nico was fully awake Will insisted they share his homemade lunch of pasta, vitamin water, kettle cooked potatoes chips, and a slice of apple pie. Nico, after much arguing agreed and they ate happily talking about everything and anything they could think of until lunch ended. From there they parted ways and continued on with their days.

At the end of the day Nico put on his Ghost King outfit and gear and took a deep breath in as he and his father (whom was wearing a skull mask) stepped into The Oracle TV studio.


	6. Chapter 6

A couple weeks passed as Nico and his family worked out the major details with the TV company. And it was a lot easier than Nico thought it would be. Apparently they had been wanting to ask him if he wanted to do a show but they had no way to contact him unless they left a comment on YouTube and they didn’t want to be so unprofessional. But in the span of those past weeks, Nico hadn’t had time to update or even shoot a new video, and his fans were getting antsy.

____________________________

~ [ > ] The Ghost King has uploaded a new video: ‘Big News!’ View it out now. ~

“Hey guys! So first off let me apologize for the lack of video updates these last couple of weeks. Secondly, I will no longer be uploading videos here on YouTube………………………yup you heard me right. There will be no more Ghost King videos here…….becauuuusssseeeeee, all new episodes will be broadcast on TV! Mhm, I will now have a TV show at The Oracle. I’m really excited if you couldn’t tell, because that means more sleep for me! I’m not too excited to have a camera crew though…but oh well! So instead of uploading videos every Sunday like I do, you can now catch me every Wednesday at 8:30 PM! The season premiere will be coming soon, though I’m not allowed to tell you, so no spoilers! See you guys soon!”

___________________________________

The school was absolutely buzzing with the news of the Ghost King getting a TV show, and when the season premiere would be. It was damn near impossible not to know the news at this rate. And Nico could barely contain his own excitement. The TV station had given him a budget of course, but money meant he could purchase better equipment to prove the existence of ghosts and such, it was a good thing his recent video was still being talked about. Because his excitement could easily be mistaken for fan excitement. Jason and Piper congratulated him as soon as they heard the good news, which was before everyone else. Well besides Nico’s family.

But so far Nico’s favorite reaction came from his favorite blue-eyed blond. Will had come over to play video games a little after Nico had uploaded the video so when Will came over, they both got notified of the update. Will’s eyes widened and he definitely let out a squeal of joy, which he absolutely denys, and flailed his hands before clicking the notification. It was always weird to watch himself in his videos but he often had to when friends of his who didn’t know who he was wanted to show him their favorite parts or where you could totally see a ghost and yada yada yada. But watching with Will wasn’t all that bad, plus he was an open book so whatever he was feeling as he watched videos was always present on his face.

Nico liked that about Will, that he was easy to read. Well sometimes. When Will didn’t want you to know something you wouldn’t unless he wanted you too, it was very odd.

“Hey, do you want to go grab some pizza with us this weekend at Jack’s?” Will asked Nico as they walked to English together. He had been asking Nico to hang out a lot lately, this was one of those times that Nico didn’t know what Will was thinking, and he felt as though he was under a microscope.

He gave a sheepish shrug, “Sorry. Can’t. I work this weekend remember? I work every weekend.” Was his reply. Which was the truth actually. Well, kinda. This weekend he would be shooting the very first episode of Ghost King for the television, but whenever he said work in the past he usually meant he was doing Ghost King things, not that Will had to know that. His dad and him came up with the excuse that Hades had his son help out at the office every weekend for some extra cash. Which again wasn’t wrong, but he only did that on Fridays when he could.

“Again? You’re always busy di Angelo.” Will pouted.

“Not always.” Nico tried to reason, but he knew it was true. The past couple of weeks he had been busy, like really busy, but for other reasons than the ones he gave his friends.

“Yes always! Everytime I try to hang out with you, you either have an appointment, got sick, or have work.”

“I know…..but after this weekend I should totally have time to hang out. How about Lou, Cecil, you and I go see a movie or something next weekend?” If Nico were being honest, he would prefer it to just be the two of them, but not like a date or anything!….okay….like a date and everything. But Nico was far too shy about things like that and if he had the courage to actually ask out Will he would, but he also didn’t want to ruin their friendship. It was a good friendship, and yes the Italian wanted something more, but he liked have constancy in his life and he really didn’t want things to change out of fear of them changes in a bad manner.

“Fine. But you’re paying!” Will declared with a smile.

Nico chuckled and nodded, “That seems fair.”

“It is! Since you know, you’ve been Mr. Busy.”

“Again. Not my fault, Solace.”

“Totally your fault, di Angelo. But anyways wanna have lunch with me today?”

“Don’t we always?”

“I don’t mean at the table.”

“Oh? Where did everyone wanna eat today? Outside the library again?”

“No. I mean maybe everyone else will but, uh, you seem pretty tired today and I know it’s been pretty noisy everywhere we go today, I figured you’d like to eat somewhere quite….do you wanna eat in Demeter’s Garden with me again?”

Nico felt his heart race and tried his best not to blush, because that sounded an awful lot like a date. But it was just lunch! Just lunch, with just them two, which has happened before, but this felt different. “Uh yeah, sure. Thanks. You, know, for noticing.” Nico mumbled as they both walked into their classroom and took their respective seats next to each other.

“I always notice if it’s you, Nico.” And oh, oh boy. Will’s voice was so full of honesty and the smile he was giving Nico was giving him the wrong idea….but Nico felt like it was okay to get the wrong idea because what if that’s what Will meant? What if he liked Nico back? Nah, that couldn’t be right….could it?

Before Nico could respond, the bell for class to start rang loudly.

__________________________

Beside him, Nico was working diligently on the assignment the substitute gave them, but Will on the other hand was having a mental freak out. Nico agreed to have lunch with him! Which okay wasn’t that big a deal. They had had lunch together before but this felt….different. Will couldn’t describe it, it was just different. But then. But then Will had to open his stupid mouth and say stupid things. Like, ‘I always notice if it’s you, Nico.’ What the fuck was he thinking! Oh right he wasn’t thinking. He could never really think when Nico was around.

But maybe what he said hadn’t been all that awkward? It made Nico smile at him albeit slightly, he had also looked pretty shocked, and he blushed. Gosh. he was so cute when he blushed. And now Will was blushing. Damn it.


	7. Chapter 7

Will honestly could not wait for lunch, mainly to clear up his awkward statement from before class started. Nico didn’t seem to mind it, but still, he’d rather his crush not find out he liked him just yet. He had a plan!

No really he did!

But he had yet to put that plan to affect.

Will was brought out of his thoughts by the shrill sound of the bell, the butterflies in his belly felt as though they were starting a fucking mosh pit in his stomach. Especially when Nico stood next to him and gave him a small teasing smirk, “Ready for lunch, Dork? Or would you rather sit here spacing out some more?”

Will huffed but smiled as he stood up and grabbed his backpack, putting his stuff away before slinging it on. “I wasn’t spacing out.” He denied as they walked out of the classroom.

“The teacher called on you twice but gave up when you didn’t respond.”

“Why didn’t you tell me!?”

“It was funny.”

Will looked at his dark haired friend with an unamused face. “Hardy har har.”

Nico laughed as they continued on their way to the science building.

“And how did I not get in trouble?”

“It told her you weren’t feeling well. See I have your back.”

Will rolled his eyes and slung an arm around Nico’s thin shoulder and pulled him into the science building. “You’re such a good friend.”

“Was that sarcasm?”

“With you di Angelo? Never.”

Nico let out a snort and shook his head smiling fondly. “This is why I call you a dork, Dork.”

“ I am not dork!”

_______________________________

Will denying he was a dork always made Nico smile since it was so very obvious that he was indeed a dork.

“Suuurrrrreeeeeee.”

“You and your stupid sarcasm.” Will chuckled as they entered the beautiful garden and went to sit underneath the weeping willow since it was really hot out today.

“I’ll have you know I am quite fluent in sarcasm.” Nico declared as he took off his backpack and through it on the ground and sat beside it. Will handled his backpack differently, he gently took it off and placed it on the ground before he claimed his spot beside Nico.

“Agreed. It’s like your second language.”

“Actually it’s my fourth.”

“What?”

“Well if sarcasm was actually a language, it would be my fourth technically speaking.”

“….you speak other languages?”

“Yup.”

“And you never told me?”

_______________________________

Will was shocked. This was the first he ever heard of this.

“You never asked.” Nico replied nonchalantly with a shrug as he pulled out his lunch box out of his backpack. Will glanced at the metal box and grinned at the lid, it always made him grin. It was a mythomagic lunch box, so no matter how much times he called Will a dork, he would always be a dork himself.

“So what’s your second language?”

“English.” The dark haired boy answered as he pulled out a triangle thing wrapped in foil. He opened the foil and behold it was a slice of pizza.

Wait. Did Will hear him right? He just said English…..what?

“Wait. What?”

“English is my second language.” Nico said slowly as though he was talking to a child.

“Okay so what’s your first?” Will asked as he got over his initial shock and pulled out his lunch as well.

“Italian. And before you ask. Yes I’m italian.”

“Yeah I got that asshole.”

“Just wanted to make sure.”

“So you’re Italian?”

Nico nodded in response as he ate his pizza. His cold pizza. Will stuck out his tongue in disgust, he had no idea how Nico could rat his pizza like that. In turn Nico stuck his tongue out at Will playfully and continued eating happily.

“Wow….so what other languages do you speak?”

“All in all. First and foremost, Italian,” Nico held up one finger and began to count off all the other languages, “then English, Greek, some French and I guess now, sarcasm.” He replied cheekily.

“Thats…..wow. that’s pretty cool!” Will exclaimed.

‘Not to mention hot!’ Will thought as he felt himself blush.

“Why thank you!” The Italian said proudly as he finished off his pizza and took out his soda. Will made another face.

“You eat too much junk food.”

“You act like you don’t, Solace.”

“I eat junk food in moderation. You seem to live off it.”

Nico rolled his eyes perfectly and chuckled.

______________________

From then on Will continued to make Nico say things in whatever language the blond wanted to hear.

All around it was a good lunch, and peaceful too. Nico was pretty happy, it was good not to hear about Ghost King and relive his previous weeks.

But then Will brought up Ghost King, of course.

“So did you hear the news about Ghost King?”

“Of course, it’s all everyone’s been talking about. I mean yeah, a TV show is pretty cool, but everyone is overreacting a bit.”

“Agreed, but that’s not what I’m talking about.”

“What are you talking about?”

Will looked at Nico with pity, like he always did when Nico wasn’t up to date with celebrities and such, or what’s going in in the world, or whatever. Nico hated it, it made him feel like he was from a different century.

“Ghost King, or at least the producers are holding a fan contest. Whoever can make the best fanmade music video or opening for the show gets to go on an exploration or lock down with Ghost King for his first official episode! I follow the producer on twitter. They announced it last night.” Will stated as he pulled out his phone and tapped away before showing Nico the screen. And there it was. A twitter post confirming exactly what Will said.

Nico was pissed! The producers hadn’t notified him of this!

OoooooOooooh boy were they in for it. But for now he had to keep cool.

“Wow….that’s just……wow.”

“Yeah. I’m entering! Are you gonna?”

Shit.


	8. Chapter 8

“What is the meaning of this?” Hades, or at the moment Nightmare, he chose his name, spoke in a cool demanding voice. Colder than his original voice thanks to the modifier Nico had given him. It made the producers cringe and avoid eye contact.

  
Nico was sitting in a chair beside his father, arms crossed and though the producers could not see his face, hence not seeing his eyes, they knew he was glaring, they could feel his gaze on them and honestly, it felt as though he was staring into their souls and condemning them to hell or something.

  
“W-Well,” Mr. Grant, one of the producers spoke up, “ At first it was just to estimate and see if his show would be successful. We had to know that there would be many viewers. But then, well, the fans got really into it, we have over two thousand videos sent in already. We can’t just call off the contest. That could be very bad for your ratings Mr….uh, King.” Grant explained, he didn’t know how but the room seemed to be a bit colder and he could feel both Ghost King and Nightmare glaring at him as though they wanted him to die. It was quite intimidating.

  
Nico sighed, “I understand.” His voice sent a chill down the producers spines and they audibly gulped. “What I don’t understand is the fact you didn’t ask me before hand to see if I would be comfortable with it. You could have done a different test of sorts but no. You decided on a contest. For my show. Without consulting me.” Hades looked at his son proudly, he was always proud when Nico got into his lawyer mode, as Hades called it.

  
“W-W-We are sorry, but there is really nothing we can do.”

“No. There is.” Nico insisted.

  
“You will notify the fans that I will be on the panel of judges, you will warn them that if they win, they will have to sign a waver, if they are younger than eighteen they need their parents permission, and if I deem the location too dangerous or they don’t follow my rules once I’ve given them to them, I get to ask them to leave. And with that. My father and I will take out leave.” Nico stood up and fixed his sweater so the skull design was where it should correctly be, his father followed suit.

  
“We will be back tomorrow to hear your reply.” Hades announced as he opened the door for his son and then followed him out of the room. Once they left all the producers let out breaths of relief. They had work to do.

_______________________________

All Nico wanted to do was silently fume in his room alone, with no distractions, but no.

Stupid Will Solace had to call him to ask about the English homework with his stupid sleepy voice that had the adorable southern tang in it that without fail made the Italian blush and smile.

“But it’s not due until next week, so don’t stress about it Solace.” He mumbled as he laid on his bed with his phone between his shoulder and ear as he held up his worn out copy of the 10th kingdom. That book, would always brighten his mood.

“Mmkay, well imma head off to bed Neeks. See ya tomorrow.”

“Okay. Goodnight dork.” Nico chuckled softly into the phone as he rolled onto his side and placed his book on his nightstand.

“Goodnight deathboy.” Will whispered before Nico heard the familiar click of the call ending and then placed his phone on the charger.

He crawled under his covers and closed his eyes, wishing for sleep. Yet sleep did not come, not yet at least. His mind was full of contest details. Who would win? What would happen? What if something went wrong? What if the fan got hurt? There was just way too many issues. What if someone he knew won? They would without a doubt know it was him, well if it was one of his friends. He was hoping if a friend did win it would be Jason or Piper since they already knew his secret.

He hated being stressed about things like this. He hated being stressed period. So he allowed his thoughts to travel to a certain blue-eyed blond.

His heart swelled at the thought. His mind thought back to their conversation then to lunch and then he was just fantasizing about them being together. All the dates they could go on. Them cuddling. And then to……inappropriate content. Content that stalled him from sleeping even longer.

He really hated long nights.

But God did he love thinking about Will.

And what it would feel like to kiss him. How warm his hands would feel on Nico’s naturally cool skin. Just many, many things.

He fell asleep to those thoughts.

Finally able to relieve some of his stress, but creating a different kind of stress in its wake.


	9. Chapter 9

The rest of Nico’s week had to be hell. He was sure of it. He must have died and gone to hell, and this was his eternal punishment. Wondering if someone he knew would win the contest, find him out, and boom life as he knew it was over. The teasing would begin again and he would have to move….again. That’s why he liked the anonymity of being Ghost King. People didn’t view him as a freak, they viewed him as cool and edgy and mysterious. They looked up to him because of his abilities, they weren’t scared by them. That’s why his heart nearly jumped out of his chest when Will, Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Reyna, Austin, Kayla, Lou Ellen, and Cecil all announced that they joined the contest. Because with Nico’s luck, one of them would win, yes he was on the Judges Panel but the videos were being sent in via email, he didn’t know anyone’s email except for his dad’s.

To say he was stressed would be the hugest understatement of the year.

Thankfully Bianca and Hazel joined, so there was a possibility that they could win as well, Jason also joined, but that boy could barely handle showing Nico a video on YouTube without messing up somehow. The Italian wasn’t confident that his self proclaimed best friend was even going to place. ‘Bianca might though,’ he thought as he stared down as his textbook, his brain and body feeling numb. His eyes were seeing the words, but his brain wasn’t processing them at all so he had to re-read the same page about five times before he could turn the page.

The producers decided to have places for the contest. First place would, of course get to go on his lock down of sorts with him and get a customary Ghost King sweater and get a self with the man himself, Second place got the sweater and an autographed picture of him, along with a poster, and third got the autographed picture, a poster and bracelets. They said it was only fair since so many people were sending in videos, they felt the need to add other prizes. And all those who sent in a video got a bracelet.

Nico vaguely could feel himself turn to the next page.

Sure he was excited about all the new equipment he would get to keep and use, but he also feared for his fan. Because it’s one thing to watch his videos, it was another to actually be in them. Yes some people thought he was a fake but actually some locations could be dangerous. And the one they wanted him to film in was an abandoned hospital in the next town over. Hospitals were like ghost magnets. And there was always malevolent spirits who got pleasure from harming people. One time he got scratched in a mental ward by a spirit who had suffered from the delusion that they were the reincarnation of Lycaon. Luckily his friend Reyna had followed him that night and hastily stitched up his arm before trying to get him out of there and to a hospital. They said he was attacked by a dog. So now he has nasty scars to prove that spirits exist, yet he never shows this evidence to anyone or proudly proclaims how he got them. He had bled a lot that night, and only added to the many blood stains that painted the floors and walls of that mental ward, he made an oath to never go back to that location, and he never posted that part of the video.

So yeah. He was also worried about something going wrong.

Could you blame him?

___________________________

The judging began and Nico could feel himself sweating nervously as he and the other judged viewed the videos, one by one.

It felt like a millennium had passed before they finally picked the winners. Third place went to this kid in New Haven where they would be filming, Second went to this kid he had dance with, he forgot her name, and First went to…….. Lou Ellen.

At first Nico had freaked out, he had to excuse himself to the bathroom so he could panic in private, well until his dad went to calm him down, but then he was grateful that it wasn’t Will.

Yes he liked Will, like a lot, but if he had won, Nico was sure he would have found out who he was somehow. But Lou Ellen was also his friend, so he also worried about her finding out. She wasn’t the type to gossip, but she was the type to push his to tell his friends, or blackmail him. She still has a really embarrassing picture of him that she uses to get him to do favors for her, imagine if she found this out!

So all he could do was breath in, and breathe out, and just hope filming went okay.

And so he anxiously awaited weekend.

He thought he could catch a break at school but the news that Lou Ellen had won was now the hot new topic, and so he had to sit there and pretend he wasn’t having a mental breakdown and pretend he was so excited for her. Will was pleasantly jealous and made that fact known almost every thirty minutes. He also complained that he should have won, in all honesty, he placed fifth. So he had been so close. Too close.

__________________________

Filming day arrived, and it was hectic. Lou was signing her waver at the station and was going to be dropped off at the hospital at 10 o’ clock pm.

The filming crew was signing their wavers at the location and setting up some equipment with Nico outside, and some inside but not a lot, and Nico was just trying to calm down. He was excited and nervous all at once, it was an odd sensation to say the least.

He made sure to eat before coming to the location but did pack some snacks in his backpack. He remembered to wear the sweater that had the where the eyes on the skull were supposed to be were cut out so he could actually see, but he did paint around his eyes with black so Lou would only get to see his eyes if she was lucky. He also double checked to make sure he had extra batteries for everything, especially his voice modifier.

As he once again double checked everything, Lou Ellen arrived. She excitedly ran up to him and shook his hand.

“Oh my god it’s you! In the flesh!!! Well sorta! Haha….sorry that was lame, I’m just so excited and nervous to be here with you….and I’m babbling aren’t i? Sorry. Um, well, I’m Lou Ellen and I look forward to being your partner for this evening.”

Lou exclaimed in one breath. Nico held down a laugh at her enthusiasm and settled for a modest chuckle as he shook her hand, hoping she couldn’t feel his pulse rushing underneath his glove. He could do this. He could do this. He was the fucking Ghost King for heaven’s sake, he could do this.

“Nice to meet you, Lou? Was it? I’m, as you know, Ghost King. Are you ready to see some ghosts?”


	10. Chapter 10

Mixed with her excitement was a very present sense of nervousness, not that Lou Ellen would admit that, but the moment they had her sign a waver and such and have her parents sign it as well, she began to feel nervous. When she first got the news that she had won the contest all she could think about was how fun this would be.

She was now singing another tune as she listened to Ghost King list his rules. It was clear this was not all fun and games. Her heart was racing and beating so loud she thought Ghost King could hear it. As if sensing her nervousness he looked at her and placed a hand over her shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze.

“Remember. If you get scared or it gets too much for you, just let me know and we’ll make sure you get home safe.”

“Thanks. So how exactly did you get into the whole ghost hunting gig?”

Ghost King seemed to go into deep thought, in search for an answer before he took in a deep breath and looked back at her. “Well….for as long as I can remember, I’ve been able to see them…talk to them…and sense them. When you’re young, you’re curious. I got curious and decided to just listen to whatever was pulling me to that old house on Asphodel Lane, you know the one?,” Lou nodded, “Well of course I had to break in, but once inside the pull was gone and I was just so relieved, but I saw them, all the spirits in that house, they were nice. I don’t know….it just became second nature for me to go back to that house and talk to the spirits there. But then it got condemned and a new house was built and put on the market. The spirits were not happy. I tried to reason with them, but they didn’t want to hear it. I even tried to stop the selling of it but no one believed me that the ghosts wouldn’t like it. So they sold it. The family got haunted….it was bad. The daughter ended up in a hospital. From then on I kinda vowed to gather evidence of the existence of spirits so people would listen…..but anyways why don’t we go inside it’s almost time to start filmimg.”

Lou could only respond with a nod, she was a bit shocked with how open he was, not to mention the fact that he apparently could do this at such a young age. It was interesting! It was astounding! It was a bit worrying….

________________________

Nico had no idea why he just basically told Lou Ellen his whole life story, maybe because it was the first time someone asked him? He didn’t know for sure. She was easy to talk to. That was something he liked about her. But it was also something he feared about her. She gathered secrets. She was trustworthy if she was your friend, but get on her bad side…and yeesh! That was a terrifying thought.

He got the cue from the crew that they were about to start, Nico let his night vision goggles hang loosely around his neck and handed Lou Ellen a pair.

“What are these for?”

“So that we can see. The power hasn’t been on in thirty years. Actually it’s not even connected to a power line anymore. So you’re gonna need them.” He said with a chuckle.

She nodded and let hers hand around her neck like he did.

After the initial introduction and interviews of past employees and patients, Nico always gave and a brief history of the place they were going to be investigating, he explained to the viewers why they had the night vision goggles as he had done to Lou Ellen, he even showed the documents stating as such. As he finished this, Lou gasped from beside him. He looked at her and tilted his head questioningly. Her eyes were wide in awe and shock.

“Remember how you said there was no power?”

“Of course, why?”

Instead of answering him, the girl before him pointed to a window of the building on the third floor, a light in one of the rooms was on. The camera guys quickly zoomed in on it as one had his camera focused on Nico and Lou Ellen.

“Oh wow. Activity right off the bat. This should be fun.” Another gasp and Nico saw the light turn off but there was the distinct shadow of someone in the room. He could already sense it’s intent.

“We’ll avoid the third floor for a while….let’s head in.” He mumbled as he took the goggles off, and motioned for a crew member to cover him as he unzipped his hoodie and slipped the goggles on and zipped the hood back up. Lou and the crew had of course tried to catch a glimpse of him without the hood but to no avail. Even the member who hid him had to have his back to him, so he of course didn’t see anything.

“Let’s go.”

They followed in silence, Lou was beside him softly clutching the sleeve of his sweater as the front doors swung open with loud refusing squeaks. They walked in and Nico nodded at the crew member outside to lock them in. Along with the three man camera crew, Nico had people stationed outside to make sure no outside interference could mess with the filming.

As soon as they stepped inside, Nico felt the temperature drop, it seemed like Lou Ellen did as well since she put on the sweater they had given her right away.

“Okay. Let’s head over to room 103, to recap that was the room the past nurse, Ms. Amanda Gardner was telling us about earlier,” Nico spoke to the camera, “Where patients reported hearing a woman singing and smelling perfume at random times, and it is also where people have reported seeing a little girl apparition on multiple occasions. As we do this, Michael Butcher,” Said man waved at the camera and smiled,“ one of our camera men is going to go around the first floor setting up x cameras, he is wearing a go pro so you guys can see him doing so, he is also going to be placing EVP recorders beside the cameras, he will be carrying one himself.”

And then they were off, each step taken Nico could sense some spirits lurking curiously but he could also sense they were low energy so there was no use speaking to them. On their way to the room Nico stopped and put a finger to the skeletal design’s teeth, his lips, everyone stood still and was silent. She was here. The little girl spirit the staff had called Elizabeth. Nico told the people with him as such. Lou Ellen was about to ask him something but was cut off by a giggle. Nico turned around and so did everyone else.

____________________

Lou couldn’t believe her eyes. There! Right there, in front of her. Caught on camera was a little girl, who smiled at them and then ran around them and into room 103. It was……Lou couldn’t even describe how she was feeling. All she knew was that her mouth was open in shock. As was the crews, Ghost King quickly ran after her only to stop at the doorway. A camera man and Lou followed only to see……

  
Nothing.

  
No little girl.

  
Nothing.

  
But she had just ran inside.

  
Nothing.

  
And then they all simultaneously smelt a vague scent of flowery perfume.


	11. Chapter 11

The smell of the perfume was overbearing, and Nico was so grateful for his sweater that helped block most of the scent. Lou brought her sleeved arm up to her nose to help the smell as well, the camera man back up and coughed. Nico turned toward the camera and then back into the room. The empty of any little girl’s, room.

“Right now, as we entered the room, the smell of perfume appeared….and it’s, well it’s strong.” Nico explained as Lou Ellen let out a cough and a groan.

“It smells like the inside of that Egyptian perfume shop, you know the one?”

Nico laughed, he did know that one., and she was right. “The one run by Nefertem?”

“Yeah, that one.”

They laughed until Nico stopped and froze, he turned and looked at the bed. Lou and the crew watched him.

“Hand me a recorder.”

Lou Ellen turned hers on and handed it to him. He gently grabbed it and pulled up a slightly broken and heavily dusty chair and took a seat across the bed. When everyone was silent Nico looked at the bed, everyone followed his line of sight but saw nothing.

“The little girl, Elizabeth, used up most of her energy when she appeared to us so she can only be heard with the recorder.” Nico explained. “Lou? Would you like to ask the questions?”

____________________________

Lou was surprised when Ghost King had asked her if she wanted to question the little girl but she nodded eagerly and walked beside him. She gulped nervously but she was determined.

“H-Hello, Elizabeth….can…can you tell us how old you are.” Lou asked, she watched as Ghost King nodded slowly and held up the recorder.

“She said she is six.”

He responded but then stopped and chuckled. “My bad. Six and a half.”

Lou heard a crew man snort and apparently so did Ghost King. “Is there a problem Mr. Harrell?”

The older gentleman, well about late forties early fifties gentleman, let out a grunt. The other cameraman, about twenty or twenty-two, Martin something or other, Lou couldn’t remember, focused his camera on Mr. Harrell. “ Okay, sure we saw that ghost thing, but there is no way you can heard her speaking.”

“So…you doubt me?” Ghost King countered, glaring, Lou assumed he was glaring, it’s almost like you could feel it, it was bone chilling, even if it wasn’t directed towards her. The older man scoffed.

“Yeah. I’m doubting you boy. This is nonsense. You are nonsense.” He declared. Beside her Ghost King stood up just as Mr. Harrell let out a hiss, a hiss of pain Lou guessed.

“Elizabeth. No.” Ghost King demanded. Lou was vaguely aware of him handing her the recorder that was still on as he walked in front of Mr. Harrell but stopped and sat on the floor.

“What the hell was that!?” Mr. Harrell exclaimed as he gripped his right thigh and pointed his camera accusingly at Ghost King as Martin focused on both of them and occasionally Lou herself for her reaction.

Ghost King ignored him. “I understand Elizabeth, but that wasn’t very nice of you.” He spoke as if to reprimand a child.

“No. I’m not angry with you. But you have to apologize.”

“Oh what the hell are you doing now?” Mr. Harrell practically growled as he took a step towards Ghost King.

“Elizabeth.” Lou saw Ghost King shake his head no.

And then Lou saw Ghost King sweater move, even though he was perfectly still. It was as though someone caressed his cheek, making the fabric move with the action.

“This is utter bullshit!”

“ You don’t believe me? Fine but do you believe in science Mr. Harrell?”

“Of course.”

“Then listen. What we are going to do now is a live playback of the recorder in Lou’s hand.” Lou jumped a bit but walked over to him and handed him the recorder. He took it and stopped recording. Then he began the playback. What she heard sent a chill down her spine. It was incredible.

She heard her voice on the recorder ask the age of Elizabeth. And then she heard it. A little girl’s voice answer.

“I’m six a-”

“She said she is six.” Ghost King’s voice said.

“No! You didn’t let me finish! Six and a half!” Elizabeth’s voice declared.

Then you could hear Ghost King chuckle before he replied. “My bad six and a half.”

Lou was shocked, not that she ever doubted Ghost King’s abilities but it was still shocking to hear how well he could communicate with spirits. This is what she had heard him call an intelligent response. Mr. Harrell seemed to be affected by this knowledge as well. He seemed to have paled, but it was hard to tell with the night vision goggles on. Then the recording got to the bit before Mr. Harrell hissed.

“Don’t be mean!” Elizabeth shouted angrily.“

“Elizabeth. No.”

“He deserves it!”

And then you could hear Mr. Harrell hiss in pain and him exclaim, “What the hell was that”

“ He was being mean! He shouldn’t be mean!”

“I understand Elizabeth, but that wasn’t very nice of you.”

“Are you angry with me?” Elizabeth sounded as though she was on the verge of tears.

“No I’m not angry with you. But you have to apologize.”

“Oh what the hell are you doing now?”

“He deserves to be punished…” Elizabeth’s voice was far too cold and calm to be saying something like that, being only six and a half and all. “Let me scratch him again. He isn’t nice.”

“Elizabeth.”

“……fine.”

And that was all you heard of Elizabeth in the recording.

“Wow…..” Lou breathed just as they heard someone yelling down the hall. They all ran out to see Michael running towards them. He was bleeding from a small slash on his forehead.

“What happened?” Ghost King asked.

_______________________

When they had heard the scream, Nico could tell right away that it wasn’t a spirit. A spirit’s sounds disembodied and he hadn’t sensed other spirits near them other than Elizabeth who was still beside him as they ran out into the hall to see Michael running towards them.

“What happened?” Nico asked as he grabbed Michael’s arm to ground him in place, as well as comfort him.

Michael was visibly shaken up and his eye’s were wide with fear.

“I-I was setting up the X cameras……a-a-and I know you said we should stay on the first floor……B-But….but I decided to get a head start and went up to the second floor to set up some more and some of the other equipment……I-I had my flashlight on, of course……but then….then the battery died. So I put on my n-night vision goggles and continued. But…….but then I…….I saw a man run up the stairs so I followed thinking maybe the security guys missed someone sneaking in…..s-so I followed……..I got to the third floor and I heard laughing………it was like that was all I could hear…..was the laughing……..and then……I looked around and I saw the man……he smiled at me……and then he was gone and then a brick was coming at me…..it grazed me because I couldn’t duck in time……” Michael explained as he took in grateful gasps of air.

No….

  
God no.

The hairs on the back of Nico’s neck stood up, he got chills, and there was an overwhelming aura of anger hanging in the air. The emotion was so present he felt like it was pushing itself onto him, trying to get him to the floor. He could hear screams, he could hear-!

“No. No! It’s back!” Michael yelled as they all heard laughter. Deep laughter.

Nico took in a sharp inhale as he heard Elizabeth whimper. “He’s here….”

Then they heard wheels? Or something squeaky. Along with an odd sound of something brushing the floor.

It was a gurney rushing towards them. Aiming at Nico.

“Get out of the way!” He yelled out as he jumped out of its path, he grabbed Lou to get her out of the way as well. The camera crew barely got out of the way as well. Michael looked on the verge of tears. The laughing continued. Nico looked down at Elizabeth who had her hands over her ears.

  
And then the laughter stopped.

  
But then the screaming began.


	12. Chapter 12

The screaming was simply awful, and for once, others could hear it at full volume like he could. And he didn’t know if that was something of a relief or terrifying. A relief to know that someone would finally understand just how he experienced everything, terrifying to know that this spirit, if you could even call it that, a poltergeist? A demon, even?, well whatever it was, was powerful enough to let everyone hear him.

Looking around him and seeing his crew and friend clutching their ears desperate to block some of the screaming out, it was apparent this was more terrifying. But Nico was certain even something like this would run out of energy sooner or later, because the more it screamed the more it was being pulled back towards the stairs, it was probably linked with the third floor, where the O.O.D. was or Origin of Death. No matter how powerful a spirit is, it always ran out of energy for a good while before it gathered it all back once again. And it always returned to the O.O.D unless it connected with a living person or object. It would then follow the person or object. Ghosts were complicated in all honesty. Even Nico found out new things with every encounter.

And with this one it seemed as though talking was out of the question, and letting it run its course was the answer. “We need to find a room to take cover in!” He yelled over the screaming to his companions who nodded in response. They could run into a room close by but the spirit could always follow, he would have enough energy to….but if they could get to the second floor then maybe the could take shelter long enough for the spirit to drain whatever remaining energy it had. He turned towards Michael who was slowly inching back with everyone. “Is there another way to the second floor besides those stairs?” He yelled once more as he pointed at said direction of stairs. Michael nodded and made a ‘follow me’ hand gesture and began to lead the group away.

But the spirit caught up and began to levitate things, nothing big but large enough to do some damage if it hit them. “Run!” Nico yelled as he picked up speed, careful not to trip over any old abandoned hospital stuff.

_______________________

This was crazy! Absolutely crazy! Like it was exciting but also freaking insane! Lou concluded as they followed Michael with small chunks of debris, old doctor/nurse equipment, and even old tattered books went flying by them. Well this would certainly be a good episode Lou thought as they almost made it to the hall where they would be safe from the flying objects at least.

So close.

They were so close to the wall now. They were rounded the corner to get behind it. And it was going to be such relief. Lou was about to cheer in said relief because she was almost to safety but they felt herself pushed faster behind the wall by strong yet small hands. She vaguely registered him scream a warning at her at the same time that he pushed her. Thankfully Martin caught her, and Lou was about to ask why he pushed her before Mr. Harrell beat her to it.

“What they hell did you do that for? You trying to kill her?”

“Quite the opposite actually…” Ghost King breathed as he clutched his left arm tightly and leaned against the wall and looked at the opposite wall in a certain place. The others followed his line of sight to a pair of surgeon scissors snuggly stuck in the wall, lightly dripping some blood.

Blood.

It was alarming to see, to know. You always watch shows like this and yeah you know people can get hurt and do get hurt but actually seeing it was another thing. It was like when you were little and thought if you put on a Superman cape you could fly. So you would jump of something so you could fly only to fall and break something. It was knowing you could easily break. That you were mortal. It was like a reality slap to the face.

Lou hadn’t realised she was trembling until Ghost King grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

“You okay?” He asked gently as they began to walk down the hall at a leisurely pace, they could still here faint screaming and objects flying into things or falling, but it was now a background noise as they made their way to the stairs, but that was still a long journey. “Am I okay? What about you are you okay?” Ghost King nodded. “You’re bleeding.” He shrugged, “I’ve had worse, this is nothing. But are you okay? You’re not hurt are you?” “I’m fine…” She responded as they turned down another hall. Once they did there was a crushing feeling of sadness. She let out a gasp at the feeling, she turned to glance at Ghost King to see him walking determinedly down the hall. If he sensed it, he didn’t give it away at all, but then again he was probably used to it. He turned toward a camera and took in a deep breath. “So that was exciting, huh? As we walked into this hall there was a feeling of sadness, this is the hall where they have had the most suicides. A total record of fourteen suicides happened in this hall.” He explained to the people who would later be watching this. “Its pretty crushing.” Lou commented as she made her way beside Ghost King, she was instructed to let the viewers know what she was feeling or thinking periodically throughout the episode. Ghost King nodded slowly. “We’ll stop by some rooms and see if we can get some EVP’s or any spikes on the EMP reader.” And with that they went into several rooms, for about twenty minutes they got nothing until they reached the last bit of patient rooms. They got some disembodied voices, and some intelligent responses but nothing big so they decided to ascend to the second floor. After gathering some cool evidence there they called the end of the lockdown. They totally avoided the third floor. Once they got out the outside crew members looked at them worriedly. They probably looked like hell. Lou mused as she took off the night vision goggles and let out a sigh as she stretched. Ghost King was getting medical attention on his arm but Lou waited for him. Once he was done she went over to him and hugged him. “This was so interesting! Thanks for letting me come with you!” She exclaimed. He chuckled and petted her back. “You’re welcome… even though I didn’t really choose you to come, you won.” He mumbled with a small laugh as he too stetched. Out in the morning light Lou could see that the part of skin he could see was pale. He had a pretty light skin tone, kinda like Nico’s. She thought and she looked, and now that she thought about it, he was pretty short. “You know…you seem a lot taller in your videos.” Lou was surprised at the bark of laughter that followed. When he laughed he put his whole body into it….somehow that striked Lou as familiar, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She was sure someone she knew laughed like that but it was escaping her. “So I’ve been told.” He said once he was done laughing. “I have to ask. How did you get your gift?” “My gift? Oh, well actually I’m not allowed to say yet. The network wants me to do an interview video on my YouTube channel, okay well I’m going to do it on my YouTube channel, the network wanted me on one of those sit down talk shows or whatever. So if you send in that question I’ll be sure to answer it.” He explained sheepishly. Lou nodded, that was understandable. “Oh! I almost forgot, I don’t know if this is against the rules but could you maybe sign something I’ve brought? It’s for a friend.” ______________________ Technically Nico wasn’t supposed to but after what they just went through he thought it was only fair. “Sure.” Lou smiled brightly as she dug around her backpack for something, she pulled out a screenshot of him from his very first video where he investigated an old toy store and had found a plastic crown so he put it on as a joke. He smiled at the picture, not that she could see or anything but still. He took the photo and the sharpie she handed him, “Who’s the friend?” “Will. Will Solace, he was pretty jealous that I won since he entered himself. He’s a big fan of yours.” Nico’s hand paused but he quickly got over the shock, he was so thankful that she couldn’t see his face because he was blushing, he knew it. ’ To Will Solace, Sorry you didn’t win the contest, but your friend Lou Ellen was brave and excited enough for the both of you I feel. There is always the next contest that comes up! Thanks for being such a loyal(yet jealous enough to glare at your best friend for a week straight) fan! Stay Tuned! X Ghost King’

(( beta read by the lovely [honestoafault](https://tmblr.co/mZOSXOnwwg1keGYlXNnN-dQ) who is now the official Ghost King beta reader! ))

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on Tumblr if anyone wants to come say hi XD I'm Goggles-mcgee on there


	13. Chapter 13

Lou of course had agreed to not talk about the episode until after it had been released on TV, but she wasn’t prepared for how hard it would be. Especially since Cecil, Will and surprisingly Nico had been hounding her with questions. Okay Nico wasn’t as bad as Will and Cecil but still. But as they sat at their favorite table for their weekly “study” sessions on Tuesday at ‘I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream: Ice Cream Parlor.’ It was a weird, Hole-in-the-wall kind of place but the group of friends loved it. It was an old horror film themed ice cream shop, that Nico absolutely adored, he was also the one to show it to them. At first they did go to the place to study but then they studied less and less and just ate more ice cream and watch old horror films. But at the moment, even Lou couldn’t enjoy her Rocky Horror (which just a spruced up version of Rocky Road) ice cream, which was her favorite. But the boys kept asking, and asking about the investigation.

“Was he cool? I bet he was cool!” Will gushed as he shoved a spoonful of The Blob into his mouth. Nico laughed at the boy and handed him a napkin which Will gratefully took.

“Maybe give her a break? She did say she wasn’t allowed to discuss it.” He reasoned as he stole a bite of Will’s ice cream smugly. Those two seemed to be finally opening their eyes and realising their feelings but they still hadn’t put the moves on the other or made any move to confess or anything. It was almost more frustrating than the constant questions thrown at her. Okay it was wayyyyyy more frustrating.

“Like I said. He was pretty cool. But short.” Lou responded with a knowing smirk.

“I don’t think shortness undermines his coolness, Lou.” Cecil mumbled through his mouthful of Dracula. (And that was not a euphemism for anything)

“Yeah! Take Death Boy over here for example! He’s fun size.” Will exclaimed as he slung an arm around Nico’s slender shoulder and pulled him close. The dark haired boy rolled his eyes and took a bite of his, The Undead ice cream, but the blush he tried to hide was unmistakable. So was his wincing. He was wincing like a lot. He also hadn’t taken off his jacket, which, okay, was kinda normal since the inside of the shop was pretty chilly, but still it wasn’t to the point of wearing a fleece lined jacket. True, the aviator jacket was his favorite but it was not cold enough to wear it, at least Lou thought so, and even though Lou had heard Will rant about how odd it was that Nico was naturally cold, like apparently it was very odd from a medical standpoint, but there was not much they could do for it.

“Hey, Nico. Why are you wearing your jacket in here? It’s not that cold.” Cecil voiced Lou Ellen’s thoughts without knowing so.

The Italian looked up at them through his lashes as he was ducking out of Will’s side embrace. “I’m cold? Is there something wrong with that?” He asked a tad too defensive if you asked Lou.

Cecil held up his hands and laughed, “Chill dude. I was just saying.”

“You sure you’re okay? You’ve been wincing a lot?” Will asked as he looked at the boy of his affections.

_____________________________

Will noticed Nico wincing, of course he did, he noticed everything. Okay not everything, but most things. Most things concerning the dark haired brown-eyed boy.

Like how he bit his lip when he was deciding whether to tell the truth or not.

“Nico.” Will chided.

Nico sighed. “I may or may not have gotten hurt on Sunday….” He finally admitted as he poked at his melting ice cream.

Will felt his heart race a bit, mainly because of how cute Nico could be, and also because he got hurt. “What’s wrong? What happened?” He asked worriedly.

Nico pouted a bit and slipped off his jacket to reveal his right bicep wrapped in bandages. “I was taking a walk with Bianca when our neighbor’s dogs got out, and you guys know how much animals love me, well long story short, I got chased, tried to jump a fence…well I did jump over a fence, but tripped once I landed and I fell on some glass, thankfully it only got my arm.” He explained as he sipped at his soda and looked anywhere else that wasn’t the people sitting at the table.

____________________

 

Nico’s dad and Bianca had helped him come up with the lie about how he got hurt, it wasn’t like he could just say a crazy poltergeist threw sharp ass surgery scissors at him, and hey, look at that it had pretty good aim! Yeah, so they came up with a lie for him so he wouldn’t be blindsided if his friends noticed and questioned him. Which he was pretty grateful for at the moment. But he hated the worry in Will’s eyes when he finally looked at his friends. “How many stitches?” The gorgeous blond asked as he gently stroked the bandages, causing Nico to shiver slightly. “Uh, I think like eight or ten, it’s not that bad.” Nico mumbled. “ You’re not straining it?” Will questioned, going into what Lou, Nico, and Cecil called his ‘Doctor Mode.’ The Italian rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Yes, Dr. Solace. I’m not straining it. I’m actually capable of taking care of myself thank you.” “Uh-huh.” “You sound like you don’t believe me Solace.” “Maybe that’s because I don’t, di Angelo.” And now Will was closer than before, which wasn’t much but it still was enough to make Nico blush, but definitely not back down. It had been awhile since their last banter, so better make this one last, right? Nico scooted closer, they were now face to face, merely inches away from one another, just glaring. “Just what are you implying Sir Butt Munch?” A thin light brow raised itself in amusement. “Oh nothing, Mr. Vomit Comet-” “You swore you wouldn’t speak about that!” Nico squeaked indignantly. Will smirked smugly. “ I didn’t give out any details did I? Anyways back to the point, you don’t take care of yourself. Okay that’s a lie sometimes you do, but I highly doubt you’re treating that wound right.” “But I am!” Nico defended with a pout. “Suuurrrrreeeeeee.” Will drew out with a laugh. What finally broke their standoff was Lou Ellen clearing her throat. They both turned and looked at her expectantly. “As fun as watching you two flirt is,” both made surprised but defensive noises, “ I actually have a surprise for you Sir William.” Now that got Will’s attention, as he completely seemed to forget Lou’s ‘flirt’ comment, Nico however did not forget. And then Nico saw her take out a frame. Annnnnd inside the frame was the picture of himself he signed. Will let out the most delighted squeal, albeit high pitched. He made grabby hands and goodness gracious was that adorable, Nico thought as he watched Will with an amused but fond smile tugging on his lips. Cecil laughed at his friend as he recorded the whole ordeal. Will was saying words at an extremely fast pace, it was more like baby babble jibberish than actual words at this point and he practically jumped over the table to give Lou a hug and kiss her cheek. And Nico found himself more than a little jealous. Lou Ellen, who had initially loved the affection and praises, now looked more annoyed than anything and promptly pushed Will off her. “Yeah, yeah. I’m great.” She announced as he dusted herself off for show and laughed. “Where is my signed picture Lou?” Cecil joked. “Oh we all know Will is much more of a fanboy than you Cecil,” Nico voiced as he watched Will stroke the frame as though it was his most prized possession. Nico felt oddly honoured, and a bit jealous of himself, which was ridiculous but true.

______________________

 

Did Cecil’s eyes deceive him or did Nico di Angelo look jealous over a picture? Oh goodness he did! He was totally jelly! Which was sickeningly cute. Hands down, Cecil 100 percent honored the bro code, and yeah his and Will’s taste in people were vastly different but even he had to admit that Nico was hot, he wasn’t his type but he certainly was Will’s, and yet Cecil still found the Italian attractive and well it was known that Cecil was not a shy guy, and he would admit to thinking Nico was attractive if anyone asked him, well at least not to Will, bro code man. Bro code. Despite popular belief, Will Solace could show an emotion other than joy, and one emotion, Cecil witnessed more so than the others was the blond’s tendency to get jealous at alarmingly fast paces. Once, Kayla Knowles, Will’s half sister commented that Nico had a nice ass, and the glare he gave her! If looks could kill, Cecil was certain that Kayla and every possible reincarnation of her had all died simultaneously. But anyways, looking at the two now Cecil was beginning to think that maybe his and Lou’s plan to get the two together was not a lost cause after all! Believe him they had been trying for like, forever. It was so obvious that they liked each other yet the two were so fucking oblivious about it. Honestly it was getting annoying, and he knew it was irritating Lou as well as the rest of their friends. Especially Jason. He had to be the biggest Solangelo shipper in existence. That was the ship name they gave Nico and Will. And the whole group of friends and shippers actually had meetings to come up with plans to get the two together. Yes some people thought that it was creepy and slightly obsessive to do so but they were all absolutely done with the sexual and romantic tension that came with the two being remotely near each other. It was suffocating. But they all really wanted them to be together, because as cheesy as it sounded, those two seemed made for each other, and they balanced one another out perfectly.

If only they could see it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta read by honestoafault on Tumblr


	14. Chapter 14

After they all parted ways and went home for the evening, Will was still gushing over the autographed picture. He couldn’t believe that Lou even managed to get Ghost King to sign something for him, he guessed that they had been busy with the filming of the episode and all, so truly it was a great surprise. And tomorrow was going to be the premiere of the show! Plus, Will finally found some time to hang out with Nico! This was arguably the best week of his life.

As the blond plopped down on his bed and clutched the picture to his chest, he could hear his mother down in the kitchen making dinner, and by the smell of it, it was his favorite, Southern Shrimp and Grits and buttermilk cornbread. Yes, as Nico loved to point out, he ate really freaking healthy, but he couldn’t resist his mama’s home cooking, plus he didn’t eat all that healthy! He tried to, but that’s kinda hard when you’re a growing boy, or so his mom told him. Will always loved dinner at his house, it was always lively with his mom and his two brothers, occasionally his half-siblings would come over as well, and rarely maybe even his dad. But for tonight, it would just be Will and his mama since Lee and Michael would both be working late, though…Will wished it was all of them, but he knew Tuesdays were his brothers busiest days. But the reason why he wanted them home so bad was not a heartfelt one like missing them, oh no, his reason was purely a selfish one. He wanted to brag about and show off his autographed picture of Ghost King! Oh boy were they going to be jealous! Ever since Percy had shown him Ghost King’s videos, Will, of course had to show his older brothers and get them hooked, because really, that’s what siblings do. And as he predicted, they did get addicted to the show like him. Much like when Michael showed them Jane the Virgin. Lee and Will got sooooooooo addicted, it was honestly ridiculous.

It got to the point that their mom had to ban watching the show for longer than four hours, which was barely even two episodes and completely unfair! 

Will remembered showing Nico that show, and Nico completely falling in love with it, but also hating Will for showing him. If something even remotely sad happened, Will would get a call or text simply saying, “you fucking asshole.” And that was it. But if something good happened he would get a call or a text that said, “You’re the best person in the universe, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise….unless it’s me.” But if something embarrassing came on, the call or text wouldn’t even be actual words, it would be a groan or high pitched noise or a mixture of pitches and vowels, for the text it would be a bunch of letters typed in a variation of caps lock or lower case and random letters, it was highly amusing that Nico di Angelo suffered from such horrid second hand embarrassment. 

But Nico was cute when he was embarrassed, he always turned scarlet red, all the way to the tip of his ears, which you wouldn’t be able to see beause of his hairstyle, unless he tucked his hair behind his ears, which he did when embarrassed and it is adorable! He would also hide his face in literally anything and try to block out the embarrassing moment as best as he could. It was really enduring. Nico, plainly was enduring. And Will knew this was no simple crush. No this was something more. 

Something passed like-like but a step back from love. All Will knew, was that he was in deep. All his thoughts somehow drifted to Nico even if he wasn’t originally thinking about him. Like he could think about stamps and probably still end up thinking about the Italian. Well now that he did think about it Nico mentioned something about a stamp on an old letter from his deceased grandmother to his deceased mother. Apparently it was really old, hence pretty damn valuable. But Nico and his family would never sell it, it was one of Nico’s prized possessions. It was a recipe. What for? Will didn’t know, whenever he asked, Nico would always somehow pull his attention to something else, which okay, wasn’t that hard but still. It was yet another mystery that made up the beautiful boy that he more than like-liked. 

A sigh escaped his lips at the thought. Nico, despite being stubbornly straightforward, held an incredible amount of secrets, secrets Will wished to hear in the future. Their future. He often thought of their future, if by some holy and hopeful chance they ever got together. He imagined they would be happily married, maybe still live in New York, adopt a couple of kids, get a dog! It would be perfect. They would be perfect. Together and for each other.

Despite being total opposites, they balanced one another. Some people might think that they were way too different to ever actually work out, but Will thought different. Because despite will being Mr. Sunshine, like Nico called him, and Nico basically being Mr. Moonlight, they really did work. Will knew it.   
Or Will thought they would if he could ever build the courage to tell Nico how he felt. 

But he always got tongue tied or couldn’t bring himself to whenever he did try. And sadly, he tried many many times.

But you know what they say, actions speak louder than words. 

He knew what he had to do! 

Tomorrow, at lunch, Will was going to grab Nico by the shoulders, stare into his gorgeous eyes, and the slowly draw him closer, maybe gently wrap one arm around his slim waist, and then he would ki–

“Will, Sweetie, dinner’s ready!” 

Will jerked out of his thoughts and nearly dropped his precious picture, his face was aflame, and his heart felt like it was going to jump out of his chest. 

“C-Coming!”

________________________

Nico was conflicted to say the least. He knew it was silly to be jealous of himself, but he couldn’t help it. What with the way Will gazed adoringly at the signed photograph of Ghost King, and hell, he even caressed the frame! The dark haired boy pouted as he sat on his bed with his laptop perched in front of him, he had just finished editing his new episode and had just sent it to the producers. This was another part of his agreement with the station, he got to edit the videos himself. He didn’t trust them enough to not mess with the footage in some way, they reluctantly agreed. But now with that done, he had nothing to distract his mind from thinking about Will. 

At ‘I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream: Ice Cream Parlor’ Will had been too close and not close enough all at once. Nico felt like he wanted to pull him closer but also push him away. It was complicated. 

Honestly, Nico didn’t know how much more he could take, he loved being Will’s friend, he did, but he really wanted something more. He wanted to hold Will’s hand, he wanted to go in cute cliche dates with him, because Will was a hopeless romantic, and maybe so was Nico, and god, he wanted to kiss him. 

Will’s lips looked so soft, as did his hair, what Nico wouldn’t give to run his fingers through it. 

He could feel himself blushing at his thought. No way that would happen….right? Maybe, just maybe Will would like it to? Like him too? Sometimes Nico thought he did. 

Maybe….maybe it would be better to tell him how he felt. 

And if he did, there was always the possibility that Will felt the same, and then they would date and it would be great, then maybe they would get married! Get a cat, maybe adopt a couple of kids. Of course they would live in New York, and occasionally visit their honeymoon spot in Italy. Yeah…it would be great. 

If Nico could just gather the courage to do so. 

_______________________

“Oh my goodness, that’s wonderful Hun! Lou Ellen is so nice. You should invite her over for a dinner soon.” Naomi told her son as she took her dishes to the sink and leaned against the counter as her son washed said dishes. He smiled at her and nodded. 

“I know right? And I definitely will, you’ll have to make some apple pie for her. She loves your apple pie.” Will commented as he finished up with the dishes and drained the water, he grabbed a rag to dry his hands off as he turned to look at her. 

Naomi chuckled and nodded, “Of course Sweetie. Oh, you should also invite Cecil and Nico. I haven’t seen those two since Thanksgiving break.”

“You mean when you put them in food comas?”

She rolled her eyes at her son’s sass, honestly he got it from his father. 

“I just made sure they ate enough, especially Nico. That boy is too thin for his own good.” 

Will nodded in agreement and sighed, “I keep telling him to eat more, and to eat healthier but he is so stubborn.” The boy crossed his arms and huffed. 

Ms. Solace laughed softly and ruffled her son’s hair. “Just like you.” She teased.

Her son just pouted more. “I’m not stubborn…”

“Yes you are, now go get ready for bed. Love you.” She mumbled as she placed a soft kiss against his forehead, which was kinda hard since her son was so tall. All her boys towered over her. 

“Okie dokie mama, love you too.” He said with a smile and kiss to her cheek before he went up to his room and got ready for bed. 

Before he got into bed he tried to think of a place to put his picture. He stared down at it and smiled. It was so cool! 

“Wow. Ghost King has really good handwriting….it’s fancy….” Will mumbled as he placed it on his bedside table. But as he did, he got to thinking, that handwriting, besides being really neat was also really familiar. Like really familiar. 

Something snapped in Will as he searched high and low in his room for something. When he finally found it, he let out a small cheer. 

Carefully he opened the greeting card he had gotten for his ‘Welcome to DGHS (Demigod High School ) !’ Party his new friends had thrown him after his first month at the new school. His eyes scanned all the written greetings eagerly till they stopped on the one he was searching for. 

‘Welcome to hell, dork. Hopefully you’ll survive since you’re kinda cool. - Nico di Angelo.’ 

A gasp left his already parted lips. “No way….”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta read by honestoafault always XD just wanna give recognition. Being beta read is honestly so helpful


	15. Chapter 15

Is there a word that is a mixture of, ‘I fucking knew it!’ and, ‘say whhhaaaattttttt?’ Because if there was, Will was pretty sure he was feeling it. He was feeling it in his soul. His goddaamn soul people.

Because yeah, he had been sorta suspicious of the fact that Nico could be Ghost King ever since Percy had shown him his videos, but actually finding out was….woah…it was kinda unbelievable. And yeah maybe the matching handwriting was just a coink-a-dink (not!), but it certainly did add another piece of evidence to Will’s already impressive pile. The blond was so sure though, that Ghost King was actually his crush. But he needed to be one hundred percent sure before he jumped in and pointed fingers or declaring it as a fact. If he wanted to know for real, with no uncertainty….he was going to have to ask Nico himself………..after he kissed him.

Yeah he was still going to kiss him. 

True finding out that the boy he was in like-like somewhat love with was actually a YouTube sensation and now television star was shocking to say the least, it honestly only made his feelings grow. He idolized Ghost King, he was great, plus Lou said he was pretty cool, and Will always trusted what Lou said, well sometimes, and now knowing that he was Nico di Angelo, cutest Italian to ever walk the Earth, yeah you could say he was pretty ecstatic! 

But how would he bring it up to the Italian without angering him or worse, scaring him? 

He would find a way because Nico was worth it, Nico would always be worth it. No matter what. 

With those thoughts, Will drifted off to bed. 

________________________

  
Nico, being the insamniac he was, was still awake at the ungodly hour of four AM. He couldn’t help it, okay! Truthfully he thought it was more hereditary than habitual. Mainly because his father was always awake at the same hours he was, Persephone hated it. She always lectured them whenever she could. Sometimes they could just laugh her off but sometimes she was scary, like really scary, and they would listen to her. 

Despite not liking her at first, actually Nico was pretty sure they both despised each other when they first met. I mean, Nico actively tried to break them up, he and Bianca pulled a straight up Nanny McPhee, except there was no Nanny McPhee, only rambunctious children trying to get their dad’s attention while simultaneously trying to ruin his relationship and betrothal to another woman that wasn’t there late mother. 

Needless to say it failed, but Nico was happy that it did, and though Seph(Nico liked to call her that) wasn’t his mother, well technically she was, she understood she wasn’t Nico nor Bianca’s and now, nor Hazel’s mother’s, she could never be them, but she would be there for them, she would be a good mother to them, and she would love them. And Nico deeply respected that, and he loved her. Even if her cooking could kill a person. 

Okay it wasn’t that bad, but the poor woman just could not cook. Not like his mama. Maria di Angelo could cook. She was the best cook, or at least Nico thought so, but her specialty was cookies, God could she make a good cookie. When he was younger, Nico was sure that her cookies could cure anything and everything. He vaguely remembers her taking him and Bianca to the hospital to help pass out her packages of cookies to the patients. All of them. That was a long night of cooking. He remembers waking up early to help package everything, all different kinds of cookies for every patient. He remembers loving seeing them smile or meeting a new patient, whenever there was a new patient, his mama would automatically take down their favorite cookie, and if they didn’t have one or didn’t like cookies she made it her mission to make one they would love. 

Oh yeah, back in Italy, Maria had her own bakery, apparently that’s how her and his dad had met, he was a law student and during a time of stress ran away to Italy to essentially destress. Hades didn’t have a lot of money, sure his father was rich but he hated his father and refused to be bought by his money. And one of the only places he could afford to eat at in Venice, Italy was Maria’s and her mother’s small restaurant, Le Papille Danzanti, they ran it while Maria’s father was in Washington DC for business. Hades fell in love with the food and Maria and well long story short Bianca was born and then Nico! 

Hades didn’t talk much about their mom but Nico remembers him telling Bianca that she was the spitting image of Maria, while Nico had a weird combination of her personality and his. But Bianca got their mother’s cooking talent, while Nico surprisingly got her baking abilities. His cookies were nowhere as good as hers but as her Dad and Persephone like to tell him, they were pretty damn good. 

Okay. 

He made up his mind. 

Since he didn’t think he was brave enough to tell Will his feelings, or show them for that matter, maybe he could bake him some cookies?

Would Will like that? 

He hoped so because he was already making his way to the kitchen. And putting on a headband to get his bangs out of the way. 

He quickly checked if he had all the ingredients he needed before he smiled and set to work.

He was going to make the best Southern Cream Cookies ever, and they would help him win Will’s heart! 

He was sure of it!

Beginning to hum he set off to make the cookies

________________________

Prega il Signore! (Praise the Lord!) the cookies were done! Mama di Angelo would be proud, at least Nico hoped she would be. He was actually proud of himself, it had been awhile since he baked. He even made some for his family to have as well. But he wrapped those ones in plain wrapping while he found some heart printed wrapping from last Valentines day when Persephone made everyone cupcakes ( rocks. Rocks with frosting. ). It wasn’t too cliché…..right? Well, Will was basically a living breathing cliché so Nico thought it was okay. He carefully put his dishes in the dish washer, because he hated hand washing dishes, he was certain that it was an ancient form of torture, and slowly made his way upstairs to his room with Will’s cookies. 

He was exhausted and was glad to know he could catch a couple hours of sleep before he had to get ready for school. He was ready for today.

____________________

Okay. He was lying. Nico was not ready for today. 

I repeat he was not! 

Once he got to school he was set on asking Will to eat lunch with him like he had planned, only Will asked him. Which yeah wasn’t weird, but there was this look in Will’s eyes, something Nico couldn’t figure out. That’s what was weird, Will was practically an open book, so for Nico to not be able to figure out his expression was more than a little nerve wracking. 

Had Nico done something wrong? Did he find out that Nico was basically in love with him? Or did he find out that Nico was actually Ghos- okay Nico was not going to finish that silly thought. 

But he was a bundle of jitters by the time he made it to Demeter’s Garden for lunch with Will. 

And of course, Mr. Sunshine was already there. And he laid down a blanket? Okay that was weird too. Usually they sat in their jackets or just the grass. 

“Hey Neeks!” Will exclaimed as he saw Nico approach. 

“H-Hey Sunshine..” Nico mumbled with a shy smile as he sat beside Will on the blanket, that was upon closer inspection a Mighty Morphing Power Ranger blanket, and it was soft. 

“How’re you doi-”

“I made you something!” Nico blurted and immediately blushed afterwards. It was clear that Will was surprised, but then he smiled, and was he…was he blushing? Nah, it must be Nico’s imagination. 

____________________

“For me? Awww what is it?” Will asked, surprisingly calm despite his heart playing a solo Metal piece at the moment, and butterflies having a mosh pit in his stomach. 

He could clearly see Nico blushing. And he was adorable. 

“I-I made you cookies.” He mumbled as he pulled out a small….heart patterned bag? 

Will carefully took them from Nico and opened the bag…what hit him for at was the familiar aroma, then he actually looked at them and gasped in joy. “Are these?”

Nico simply nodded before replying. “I know they’re your favorite….” 

Will happily pulled out a cookie a sank his teeth into it. And oh god. Oh goodness….these were fantastic! No they were divine! 

“Oh my god….” Will moaned out as he finished the cookie. 

“These are amazing Nico! I had no idea you could bake!”

The Italian seemed to blush more and chuckle as he shrugged. 

“What’s the occasion?” Will asked as he took another bite out of a cookie. 

He could see Nico stiffen and look down at his hands in his lap. “W-Well you see……I-I’m not great with words…..or a-actions…..and I thought that this would be a good way……to uh…..well……um….”

This couldn’t be……could it? Was Will going crazy or was Nico di Angelo actually trying to confess to him? He was going crazy, he had to be! 

But oh god, that is what it seemed like. 

Will gulped down the cookie in his mouth, was it getting hot out here? When did his heart begin to race? And was his hands always this sweaty? 

Before he could think of it, Will felt himself slide a hand around Nico’s waist, he heard Nico squeak rather cutely at that, and his other hand landed on the back of the dark haired boy’s head as he brought him closer and them it happend. 

Their lips touched. 

At first Will was afraid he read too much into it, but then he felt Nico relax and cup his face shyly. 

They were kissing and it was perfect. 

No, their was no heavenly choir singing in the background. And no it wasn’t full of passion. It was awkward, their noses bumped, and their lips were barely pressed against one another but to Will it was perfect. 

Nico’s lips were as soft as he imagined, and surprisingly cool. 

The two pulled away, both sporting equally red blushes. They didn’t say a word, only gazed into the other’s eyes before deciding to lean in for another kiss, and after that one another. And then another. After that one they pulled back and began to laugh and simply hug each other. 

“You? But I thought you would never!” Nico explained his voice full of glee. Will hugged him tighter as he continued to laugh. 

“Me neither! But I’m so happy, Nico! I’m so happy!” Will gushed as he pulled them down to lie on the blanket accidentally knocking over Will’s already open backpack. 

“Nico di Angelo…I like you…..like a lot.” Will confessed. 

Nico smiled softly down at him. “William Solace….I really li- what’s that?” Nico asked with a tilt of his head. Will followed his line of sight and saw….

  
Crap! The picture and the card in the pile of his school supplies! Those weren’t supposed to come out till later! 

Will looked up at Nico just as Nico looked down at him. 

Will quickly flipped them over in panic and slight adrenaline and blurted out, “I know you’re Ghost King!”


	16. Chapter 16

Will held his breath as he studied the boy underneath him. He was rigid to the touch. His face seemed frozen in shock.

A blink. 

Another blink. 

The blinking of his eyes was the only thing that told Will he was still alive, like yes, he could feel him breathing but he was just so still. 

“Nico….? You there…..?” Will asked unsure as he hesitantly ran his fingers up and down pale skin. 

Will’s voice seemed to bring Nico back to some of him senses, because Nico inhaled deeply as his eyes closed. 

“How?” The dark haired boy whispered. 

But it was soft. Oh so soft. Too soft. 

“What…?” Will questioned as he stared down at Nico, still essentially trapping the boy beneath him. 

Those wonderfully dark eyes opened and focused on Will, there was a gleam of hurt in them that Will instantly felt guilty about but where there was that gleam there was a shining of curiosity. It seemed to outweigh the hurt. 

“How did you find out?” Nico asked. His voice monotonous, and oh how Will hated that tone, especially now that it was being used with him. 

“Please don’t do that Nico, don’t shut down on me, I don’t think any differently of you, I mean I kinda do because that information makes you so much more awesome! But please believe me when I say I’ve liked you way before I knew. Hell, you could even say I’m falling for you, because I am, I really am Nico. Because I can definitely see myself loving you. So please….just let me explain before you decide you don’t want this. I want this, but I want it without secrets.” Will exclaimed, his eyes desperately searching Nico’s. 

____________________

Nico could hear as well as see Will’s desperation as he told Nico all this. Yeah, Nico was kinda hurt when he saw the picture and the card, because his mind automatically jumped to the conclusion that Will only liked him because he was Ghost King. But hearing the little mini speech he just gave, the Italian believed him. Which was honestly such a new feeling for him. To believe someone right away, because he tended to be a very suspicious and anxious person. But with Will, he just felt like he could honestly trust him. Wholly and unconditionally. 

With a sigh Nico nodded, “Okay.” He replied simply. 

And with just that one word, Nico could visibly see Will relax as the tension oozed out of him, but he still remained on top of Nico, not that he was complaining or anything. 

“Thank you.” Will whispered to him as he slowly got off of Nico, which Nico certainly did not pout about, but he wasn’t pouting anymore once he felt Will hug him from behind and pull him to his chest so Will was leaning on the trunk of the weeping willow, and with Nico leaning against him. 

The dark haired teen felt the blond rest his chin on top of his head and felt as well as heard him sigh. 

“I guess……I guess I started to get suspicious after the first couple of episodes I watched. I honestly can’t tell you why, but I did. After the first 10 episodes or so I started to notice little gestures he did that I noticed you did. Because well, I’ve always noticed you. But the more I watched the more suspicious I got. I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions which is why I never questioned you full on. I may have asked round-a-bout questions but you always had a logical reason for everything so I just thought I was reading too much into all of it. Until….”

“Until the photo.”

“Until the photo.” Will agreed before he continued. “ At first it was the message. I was like, ‘how could he have possibly known that?’ But then I thought, ‘Lou must have told him.’ Which quickly brushed off any suspicion until I recognized the handwriting. Thus the card and photo…..so there you have it.” 

There he had it indeed, and surprisingly he was okay with it. “I believe you.” Nico muttered as he turned around in Will’s arms a bit awkwardly to look at him. He was biting his lip nervously and twiddling his fingers as he stared back at Nico. “And….I still want this…..I still want y-you.” The Italian mumbled as a blush steadily spread across his cheeks. 

The smile Will gave him was the most beautiful thing Nico had ever seen. It made his legs feel like jello, which thank god he wasn’t standing on them, and it made his heart stutter. Will cupped his face and slowly brought him in for a gentle kiss, it was more of a peck really, like a whisper of a promise of more to come. Nico couldn’t help the soft smile that graced his lips. 

“But one more thing.” Nico muttered against those warm lips merely a breath away. 

“What’s that?” Will whispered as he pressed another kiss to Nico’s eager lips. 

“Please…..please keep this a secret. I know that might be selfish and unfair of me to ask of you. But Will, I-I-I really want this to remain a secret.” Nico pleaded as he pulled back. 

____________________

Those dark eyes were filled with worry and fear, things that did not suite those wonderful eyes at all. 

Those eyes that scanned his face for a reaction, one they seemed to believe would be bad. But all Will did was sigh and run a hand through Nico’s surprisingly soft locks. He knew it would be taxing to keep such a secret but it would also mean so much to Nico if he did, and really there was no competition on what to choose. 

“Of course I will. I want you to be comfortable Neeks, I don’t want you to worry about anything. Okay?”

“Okay….” was his whispered reply before he felt Nico rest his head on Will’s chest and curl up into a little ball in his lap. Will happily wrapped his arms around the smaller boy and just basked in his natural coolness that was steadily getting warmer. He could certainly get used to this. 

They stayed like that, enjoying each other’s company, not saying a word but content to do so until the bell rang, and maybe even a little after that. Yes, Will was a little late to his next class but as far as he was concered. It was totally worth it.


	17. Chapter 17

Nico felt as though he was in a daze for the rest of the day. Not only did Will reciprocate his feelings, but he also new he was Ghost King…..and he had told the Italian that he was essentially falling in love with him or could fall in love with him. Same difference. Needless to say, he hardly paid attention in his classes and his friends of course noticed.

Well mainly Reyna and Jason. They had asked him what was wrong to which he replied dreamily, “Absolutely nothing.” 

Apparently it was so out of character for him because Reyna automatically assumed he had been given drugs or something. Jason seriously asked if he accepted something to eat, like a brownie, from someone he did not know. 

That had made him laugh. Like hard. 

“Ummmm no. I can definitely say I have not eaten something from someone I do not know, nor did I take drugs. Bianca would kick my ass if I did. So would Hazel…..so would my dad….and Sephony (persephone) too…..and you two…..I’m pretty sure Annabeth would as well…..actually just all of you, everyone I know. Wow, now that’s an eye opener.” The dark haired boy rambled out as he played with his pencil, obviously not doing his work like Jason and Reyna, who might I add were already done. Nerds. 

Reyna crossed her arms which made her flex her arm muscles, which by the way was very intimidating. It was rumored that Reyna could make any man or woman confess all their sins by just crossing her arms and looking at them. It was one of Nico’s favorite rumors actually because he was pretty sure it could be true. 

“You’re rambling.” She stated. 

“I’m not rambling.” He defended as he too crossed his arms. 

Jason who was quite literally between them kept swiveling in his chair so he could look from Reyna to Nico and from Nico to Reyna. 

“Di Angelo.” Reyna scolded, sounding very much like a disappointed mother. 

Nico couldn’t help but give her a sheepish smile. “Okay so maybe I was rambling, but it’s for a good cause?”

“And what would that be?” Jason asked, his attention caught yet again. 

“Ummm…..well I had wanted to tell Hazel and Bianca first but….I uh,…. kissed Will.” Nico admitted and with each word his blush got darker and darker until he felt his whole body flush. 

“What!?” Reyna and Jason shouted simultaneously. To which they got a rather rude, ‘Shhh’ from the teacher. 

_______________________

Okay here’s the thing about Will, the guy is always humming or singing a tune whenever you’re around. He always does it. 

But at the moment he was humming. He wasn’t singing. He was just sitting there with a dazed look. He wasn’t even paying attention to the health education teacher! He always paid attention in health! 

But here he was just sitting there with his face in his hands, a zoned out look on his face, with a soft smile tugging on his lips. Also there was the sighing. 

The goddamn sighing. Lou was about ready to punch him just so he would stop the sighing. But she was also worried about him. 

“I think he’s finally lost his mind.” Cecil commented as he balanced yet another object on Will’s head. 

First he had just placed his textbook and notebook there to see if Will would react, but when he didn’t he took it as a personal challenge to stack as many things as he could before Will or their teacher noticed. 

Right now he was at three books, a binder, two water bottles with a ruler balancing between them his phone in the middle of that ruler and an empty Gatorade bottle on top of his phone. It was actually pretty impressive. 

“I think you’re right.” Lou mused as she waved a hand in front of Will’s glazed over eyes and promptly passed Cecil a pen to add to the ridiculous pile of things on Will’s head. Cecil grinned at her in thanks and somehow got the bed to stay in one of the holes in the ruler. 

“At least he looks somewhat happy. I mean he’s smiling at least.” Cecil commented as he somehow perfectly balanced a marker standing up on the empty Gatorade bottle. 

Lou snorted, “ I think it has something to do with Nico.”

At the mention of the Italian’s name, Will sighed yet again but seemed to come back to the real world as he sat up straight. Causing the tower of stuff on his head to some crashing down around him. Cecil cursed as he narrowly saved his phone from smashing into the ground. 

All the things falling around him and the noises of them hitting his desk or the floor seemed to snap Will completely out of his daze. The teacher yelled at them to behave but other wise said nothing as some kids snickered. 

Will flushed and mumbled an apology. 

“What’s up with you? You’ve been this way since lunch.” Lou commented with a smirk. 

“What do you mean? Like what?” Will asked. 

“ Like this.” Cecil stated as he impersonated Will, over exaggerating everything. 

Lou laughed and nodded. “Yeah like that.”

Will seemed to blush harder as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Well I…..me and…..I kissed Nico.” He finally spewed out. 

That effectively made Lou and Cecil freeze. All they did was blink. 

“Uh guys?” Will questioned, genuinely worried that he had broken his friends. 

“You did what?” Lou asked at the same time that Cecil asked. “Wait, what?”


	18. Chapter 18

“Okay. Start at the beginning.” Reyna started in a surprisingly steady voice as her, Nico, and Jason walked to their next classes, which were all near each other and a bit far away so they had time to talk about Nico’s confession.

The Italian had his eyes glued to the floor, his ears, neck, and face were completely red, and he was pouting. He looked like an angry tomato. At least Jason thought so. “It was at lunch…..and uh,….well we…..I gave him the cookies I made for him…….and well……I confessed…or he confessed…..honestly it’s all a blur right now……..and then we kissed…….there was some talking after that…..and uh….more…..k-kissing…definitely some cuddling….” Nico mumbled, and if possible his blush darkened significantly with each word he stammered out.

Reyna’s eyes widened as well as Jason’s, but then her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What did you talk about Nico?”

And Jason knew for sure him and Reyna both caught the gulp and how Nico seemed to tense. 

“That’s…..can we talk about that after school?” The dark haired teen declared. Now looking more serious, his blush even died down. 

“Was it something bad?” Jason asked cautiously as he placed a comforting albeit protective hand on the smaller teen’s shoulder. It felt so small and thin beneath his hand. 

Reyna crossed her arms in that intimidating way but Jason and Nico both knew it was her protective stance, specifically when it came to Nico. 

Nico didn’t even flinch under their gazes, didn’t shrink away like most would, but it’s not like either of them expected him to. Nico di Angelo could out stubborn a bull if he ever wanted to. “I’m not going to lie….at first I thought it was but, I… I’m certain it’s not now…just that it might complicate things….important things that we will discuss at my house after school. Persephone is going to make that weird organic macaroni again so..uh be prepared and bring extra spices? But yeah we’ll talk about it then.” Nico concluded as he walked away from the shivering Juniors he called friends and walked into his class. 

The two stood there absorbing what he said, mainly about what he wanted to talk about but also when he mentioned Persephone cooking. That made them shudder. 

“I’ll bring garlic salt like last time if you bring the cayane pepper again.” Jason suggested to Reyna who merely nodded as her response and they both went to their classes. 

____________________

“Okay I want details and I want them now!” Lou declared as her and Will waved goodbye to Cecil who also demanded to know the gossip after school. 

Will snapped the bracelet he was wearing over and over again. He almost always had to do something with his hands, whether he be nervous or just bored. This was out of nervousness. 

“Like I said. We kissed, and we’re dating. Well gonna date. I wanna take him out a couple of times before we make it official.”

Lou rolled her eyes and snorted. “What, are you gonna ask his dad for permission to date him?” 

When she received no reply, Lou turned to look at her blond friend who was an impressive shade of red and quit messing with his bracelet. 

“Oh.” She breathed out. “You’re really gonna do that?”

Will gulped and laughed sheepishly as he nodded. “Too cheesy? I wanted to do it because Nico said his dad is pretty old fashioned about stuff, like technology mainly, like sure he has a Mac and an IPhone and stuff and he can work them, but he is cruddy at using social media. Like seriously any kind of social media. He called Tumblr, “Tumble,” and Twitter, “Twattar.” Oh God and Facebook became BookFace or Book of Faces. When Nico was helping him make a Facebook along with his sisters, Hades asked him, no joke, “What would I do with a book full of faces? Do I know the faces? What if I don’t know the faces Nico?” I’m not kidding. And I just thought that he would appreciate me asking for Nico’s hand…….not like MARRIAGE!!! We’re too young. Oh goodness we are sooooo too young for that I mean in dating. Hand in dating. Yeeaaahhhhhhhhh.“ 

Will rambled on and on. Seriously, it was like the boy suffered from word vomit when he over thought or was nervous. It was kinda cute, like now. Lou couldn’t help but laugh, which made Will stop rambling and pout. 

“Are you laughing at me Ms. Ellen?” 

“Of course not Mr. Solace, I was laughing at….well yeah you but not because of what you were saying. Because you are just too darn cute!” She replied while she pinched Will’s cheeks and cooed. 

The blond swatted her hands away and pouted once more as he rubbed his cheeks. That hurt!

“Soooo….it is a good idea?”

“I think he would appreciate it, I think Nico would as well. He’s kinda old fashioned too. Somewhat. I mean he has an old record player, isn’t that crazy? And he doesn’t have an iPod! He has one of those CD players that you clip to your jeans, also a Walkman like who has those anymore?”

“I think it’s cute. He also has an original game boy, game boy color- a pink one, a dreamcast, a GameCube, a Nintendo 64 and all kinds of old gaming systems it’s wild.”

“So what you’re saying is his house is a retro gold mine.”

Will chuckled and nodded. “Basically.”

“Oh hey! Are you going to go to the Stolls party this weekend? I heard it’s going to top the last one.” Lou excitedly explained. 

“I heard that one was really crazy, but I don’t know. I’m not really the partying type, Lou, you know that. Also does Reyna know? I’m sure she would be pissed if she knew.”

Lou waved her hand in a dismissive manner. “Don’t worry, she has no idea. Apparently she is hanging out at Nico’s. I guess it’s like their monthly movie night or something.”

Or something. Will thought. It probably was to help out with the whole Ghost King thing, which honestly Will was still not over. Or perhaps it really was a movie night. He really didn’t know. 

“Dude you should totally come to the party. I heard they hired Leo’s cousin who is a professional fire-breathing. It’s going to be lit!”

Will groaned. “Please never say that again.”

Lou smirked devilishly. “What lit? It’s going to be so lit! Like I don’t think anything could be as lit and this lit party!” She mocked with wild hand gestures. 

Will continuely made faces and groans as she kept talking until he dissolved into giggles. “I’ll consider it if you stop saying lit.”

“Yes!”

“That doesn’t mean I’m going to go!”

“It practically does, Solace.” 

“You’re impossible.”

“Awww I love you too!” 

Why did Will get the feeling that the party was a bad idea?


	19. Chapter 19

It was finally after school and Will was pretty excited to get home, do his homework, and then watch the new episode of Ghost King. As always, the school was incredibly hyped about it. Will was sure he was more excited since he would be watching his sorta-boyfriend on TV! Like, how cool was that?

After he had had dinner and had done his homework, Lee, Michael and him all sat down in the living just in time for Ghost King to start. Will was giggling through the new intro since the producers and editing department tweaked Lou’s video a bit, and had Nico talking about what he did. 

It was cool but a little dorky now that Will knew that behind the voice modifier and the sweater was Nico. 

All around though the intro was interesting and pretty damn cool. It started off with a grainy image of Nico, well Ghost King in his first episode when he had his back to the camera and was looking to his right at a chair that had fallen over during the episode. And the sound of a heartbeat, a steady heartbeat continued to play as images of his old episodes were flashing over the screen. Then Will heard him speak. “ I am the Ghost King. ” ,now it started to show small snippets from his old episodes, “ for as long as I can remember, I’ve been able to communicate and see the dead,” The heartbeat started to get louder as the images stopped on a new one, it was Ghost King standing in the old cemetery on Poe Drive. The heartbeat started to get faster and eerie music began to play softly as the camera zoomed in slowly on Ghost King. “At first, it was enough that only I knew about the existence of spirits, but as time went on, I felt the need to show others the proof as well. To show them that there are indeed spirits among us. Many of you watching might already be fans, or maybe you’re simply watching it because you were curious. Well whatever your reasoning, just know that what you see is real. I take many precautions in order to show you the truth. So without further ado, you are watching Ghost King.” The camera is now straight on Ghost Kings, skeletal looking head. Then the heartbeat and eerie music stopped in favor of a woman screaming and a spirit seemingly swallowing the image of Ghost King till the screen went black and all the introductions were gone. Then there was Lou being interviewed and some of the staff as well, before they headed into the building. 

Throughout the whole episode the three brothers would jump, maybe occasionally scream, and laugh at the combined snark of Ghost King and Lou Ellen. The episode was great. But Will felt his heart drop when he saw Nico get injured by those scissors that were thrown at him by the poltergeist. He knew he gasped as his brothers winced. It was like he was more aware of everything Ghost King did, he thought he was already before finding out the identity of Ghost King, but oh how wrong he was. Every episode was replaying itself in his head, which one’s Nico got hurt in and how bad, and just exactly how he had lied about how he got his injuries. 

It was….it was a bit overwhelming, and very worrying. Will was more aware of just how dangerous Nico’s job was. And it scared him. It scared him more than the ghosts themselves. 

He gulped as he continued to watch the episode clutching the couch’s pillow to his chest. 

______________________

“So he knows.” Reyna stated more than questioned. 

Nico nodded as he plopped back on his bed and sighed. “Yup.” He responded making the ‘p’ pop. Jason sat beside him and patted his head. 

“Well at least you know you don’t have to keep secrets from one another.” Jason supplied as he laid beside Nico and smiled at him. 

Nico returned the smile and nodded before he sighed. “I almost ruined it though…” 

Reyna now laid on the other side of Nico and raised one perfect brow at him. “What do you mean?” She asked as she started to play with his unruly mane. 

“I….when he told me he knew…I…I almost shut down…I was really close to doing it. I just. I don’t know. I felt betrayed in a way. Like….like maybe he only liked me because he knew, you know?” 

The other two nodded. 

The dark haired teen inhaled slowly and exhaled a shaky breath. 

“I could have ruined it so fast. But Will, he, he managed to calm me down and he managed to convince me that he really liked me….like me, me. If that makes sense.”

“It does.” Reyna reassured. 

Their peaceful moment was ruined when Nico’s phone began to buzz continually on the night stand. Jason grabbed it for him and smirked teasingly. 

“Well speak of the devil.” 

“Seriously?” Nico asked as he scrambled to sit up and snatched his phone from Jason. Once he saw Will’s contact picture, it was him about to be attacked by a goose and screaming. He took it when they went to the zoo, for some odd reason they had geese running around. Anyways, once he saw the picture he immediately blushed. 

He continued to stare until Reyna nudged him and laughed. “Well answer it.”

He nodded, still blushing and hurried to answer the phone. “Yes? I mean hello! Hey. Hi.” 

Jason snickered at him which he and Reyna retaliated by hitting him with pillows. 

Nico could hear Will laugh on the other end softly. “Well hey there. Whatcha up to, Angel?” 

Now Nico was strong, in a lot of senses, but he was finding out he was absolutely weak to pet names. 

He squeaked but regained his composure rather fast. “Uh, not much just hanging out at my house with Reyna and Jason.”

“Oh nice. I just finished watching Ghost King.” Nico could practically feel Will’s tension. He was obviously in front of others, that or he didn’t like the episode. 

“Oh. Yeah? How’d….how’d you like it?” It felt weird to ask how someone liked his show since he knew they knew who he was. He chewed on his bottom lip as Reyna and Jason scooted closer to listen in. 

“It was great! Very suspenseful. Worrying though.”

“Worrying?”

“Yeah. Since you know, Ghost King was sliced by, probably rusty scissors and could have gotten tetanus. And didn’t get medical attention right away.”

Oh. He was getting lectured. He was getting lectured by his boyfriend? Kinda-boyfriend? Yeah kinda-boyfriend. Nico rolled his eyes and smiled. 

“I can practically hear you rolling your eyes at me.” Will remarked. Which made Nico laugh. 

“Maybe because I was. I’m fine Will. Really.” 

“Mmm probably. Hey is it okay if I come over?”

Nico felt a breath get caught in his throat and felt himself blush again. “Uh, sure.” He mumbled. 

“Cool I’ll be there in 10 minutes. See ya then.”

After that Nico hung up and just sat there before he laughed. Reyna and Jason watched him, both clearly amused at his behavior. 

“He just lectured me.”

“He what?” Jason asked with a small chuckle. 

“He lectured me about getting hurt during the episode, practically. Oh, he’s also coming over.” 

Reyna shook her head and chuckled softly. “Good. You need to be more careful.”

“Not you too.” Nico whined. “Anyways, how’s Connor and Travis doing? Didn’t they just win some game last week?” Nico asked Reyna. 

“They’re doing good. Scared the living daylights out of our Mom though when they came home. They were cheering as loudly as they could when they walked through the door after the game. They did win by the way.”

“Yeah I got that.”

Jason laughed and sighed. “Sometimes I have a hard time believing that you’re actually related to those two.”

“Trust me, so does a lot of people.” Reyna remarked with a laugh. “They only believe me when I explain that I was adopted.”

“Which is stupid.” Nico concluded as he turned on his TV and began to flip through the channels. 

Reyna hummed in agreement. “Hey put it on Chopped.” She recommended and Nico was all too happy to oblige as Jason groaned and rolled his eyes. “We watch that all the time though!” 

“Yeah because it’s a good show, now shush!” Nico insisted as he put on the food network. 

________10 minutes later_______

“You are such a nerd. You got here exactly ten minutes later.” Nico teased as he walked with Will up to his room. They stopped to say high to Hazel, Bianca, and Persephone who invited Will to stay for dinner, which Will said he’d stay for but he had already eaten. Persephone was a bit upset but told him next time that he would have to come over and try her famous pasta. He accepted and made their way into his room. 

Jason and Reyna teased the two a bit which made them both blush something fierce but stopped so they could hang out. Will made sure Nico was actually okay and then they were all watching The Monster Squad, an old 80’s movie while they waited for dinner to be ready. 

They made small talk and Will made the mistake of mentioning the party that was coming up. 

“So are you going to Connor and Travis’s party?” Will had casually asked Jason, and then immediately slapped a hand over his mouth and looked at Reyna. 

“Oh I already knew about it.” She simply commented with a shrug. 

Will was totally confused. “Wait you knew?” 

“Of course I did. They invited Rachel who then accidentally told me. You know she’s not very good at keeping a secret, she told me in a riddle. I think she didn’t think I would figure it out. But I love riddles so it was pretty easy to find out.”

“And you’re not mad?” Will asked as he wrapped an arm around Nico and brought the Italian boy closer. He could see Nico blush but also smile. Which made Jason smile. 

Reyna shrugged again. “I was at first but then I found out that they are throwing the party because they won last week’s home lacrosse game.”

“Which is weird since they only throw parties for like…the end of finals or something like that.” Nico mumbled as he leaned more on Will. 

The dark haired female nodded. “Yeah, but if my hunch is correct, Connor convinced Travis to help him throw a party so Mitchell would go.”

“Wait, Mitchell? Don’t they hang out anyways? Why would he need to throw a party?” Jason asked. 

“God you’re so slow.” Nico sighed. “Connor likes Mitchell. He has for a while now.” 

Again Reyna nodded. “Yup.”

“Seriously? Okay but why throw a party?” Will asked. 

“I think he’s doing it to impress him.” Reyna commented off handedly. 

“Wow….how did you figure all this out?” Will asked as Jason nodded and asked, “And how are you so sure that Connor likes Mitchell?”

“Oh please. I’m his older sister, I know him. Plus, Travis may have let it slip. Well he more so hinted at it than anything.”

Will and Jason nodded slowly in understanding as Nico laughed at them. 

Okay so maybe the party wouldn’t be all that bad. Will thought. “Well then, in that case. Wanna go to the party with me?” He asked Nico who flushed. 

“Party’s aren’t really my thing.”

“They’re not mine either but I know for a fact that Lou is going to drag me there one way or another. It’d be better if I had a date.” He said with a wink. 

“I guess that makes sense. Misery loves company.” Nico responded with a teasing smirk. 

“That’s the spirit!” Will encouraged. 

It was nice. This was nice. Thought Nico. 

“Dinner’s ready!” Persephone yelled from downstairs. 

Aaaannnnnnnnnd nice moment over. 

Reyna and Jason groaned and looked at Nico pleasingly, as though he could get them out of it. He stood up and helped Will up before slapping Jason’s knee softly.

“Come on you big babies. Let’s go.” 


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> College is hard. College is fun. I'm conflicted. I finally had time to upload this though so I'm happy!

______The Party_______

Boisterous and maybe drunk students filled the house almost to the brim, there was red solo cups everywhere, some slightly nude people running around and jumping in the pool, and the music was blaring so loud that Nico could feel the bass rattling his bones.

As he stood in a corner drinking water he wondered for the umpteenth time that evening, why he was here. And everytime he did ask that he gave himself the same answer, because Will, fucking, Solace that’s why.

With a defeated sigh he scanned the crowd for the familiar mop of blond hair only to yet again, not spot it. Will had told him that he was running late, that Cecil was taking too long to get ready and that Lou’s car was acting up again so Nico knew it would be a while till he would see Will, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t scan the crowd in ten minutes again.

And that is exactly what he was doing, but something actually caught his eye this time though. No it wasn’t the golden hair he was hoping to find but instead it was brown curly hair that belonged to either Connor or Travis. It was honestly very hard to tell the two apart if they weren’t standing side by side. Since Travis was taller than Conner. It was amazing that they looked so alike yet weren’t twins. Honestly it was quite scary or alarming.

But anyways, his attention was caught by whichever Stoll this was because they were doing exactly what he was doing, looking for someone. After another sweep of the crowd Nico caught sight of Katie Gardner talking to one of the Stolls, the Italian concluded it was Travis when the two kissed. It was funny to see the couple acting couple-y since they hated each other back in grade school. Like they had a really intense rivalry going on back then. It surprised everyone that they had gotten together. They still fought and everything but they actually made a really cute couple. But how they got together now that was a story Nico would have to tell another time.

The dark haired teen looked back at who he now knew was Connor and decided to go say hi, or at least distract him from practically biting his lip off.

“Hey Connor,” Nico greeted.

Said boy jumped a bit and turned to stare at Nico and smile sheepishly. “Hey Spooks, how are you liking the par-tay?” He asked over enthusiastically with wiggling brows and all.

“Eh. Parties aren’t really my thing…but anyways what are you doing? Shouldn’t you be, I don’t know fighting for your title at Battleshot?” Nico questioned as he leaned on the wall behind them, Connor did the same with a sigh.

“I’m actually waiting for someone.”

“Oh same. Who are you waiting for?”

“….Someone.”

“Who?”

“I’m uh, I’m waiting for Mitchell. He said he would be here, but he hasn’t come yet. And you?”

“Mitchell? The one you play lacrosse with?”

“That would be the one.” Connor confirmed with a wistful smile. It was so different from his usual smile that looked like he had just dropped some firecrackers in someone’s pants that it shocked Nico.

“Oh….coooooool.” He so eloquently responded.

______________________

As soon as Nico had approached him, Connor actually had calmed down his nerves a bit and had gotten a distraction from waiting, so honestly it was a win-win kinda thing. He was actually surprised he had gotten away with calling Nico, ‘Spooks’, since he had told Travis and himself many times that he did not care for the nickname. But then the conversation turned to Mitchell.

Mitchell who was on his lacrosse team. Who was a great teammate and who could totally rock a perfect wing sharp enough to cut a man.

Mitchell who bought his makeup at the convenience store that Travis and Connor worked at, and who always paid with a card and who had the prettiest looking signature the brunette had ever seen.

Mitchell who was his best friend aside from Travis.

Mitchell that he may….that he may have developed a crush on…

Mitchell who…who’s eyeliner and mascara made his eyes just pop….

Mitchell who’s bright blue hair made Connor think about the sky on a perfect cloudless day…..

Mitchell who’s favorite chapstick was peppermint scented…and made his lips look so damn kiss-….oooookay. Yeah stopping there.

So yeah, Mitchell.

He was waiting for Mitchell.

But then he caught what else Nico said. “So uh, who are you waiting for? Hot date?” he teased with a smirk.

The shorter boy snorted, “Oh yeah. The hottest.”

Okay so that response surprised Connor. For as long as Connor had known Nico, which is a long time. Nico was like an honorary member of the family with how often he was over and how much time they have spent together. What was even better, was that he helped Travis and him pull pranks, which was pretty awesome, but overall that he never really showed interest in anyone. Yeah there was that whole Percy thing, but he thought after that Nico just didn’t want or like anyone.

“And who might that be?” Connor asked curiously.

“Mmm…,” Nico absently hummed, “that would be…someone. So why did you guys even throw this party? It’s a little sudden don’t you think? I mean I know your parents are out of town but this was a little last minute planning and usually you guys plan these out better.”

Oh boy. So even Nico di Angelo noticed that this was last minute. If he noticed maybe Mitchell had noticed as well!

Connor couldn’t help the blush that rapidly appeared as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Well that’s a funny story actually…..I uh…..we….no I….ugh…….you promise not to tell anyone?”

The teen beside him gave him an unamused look that said, 'you know I wouldn’t so why are you asking?’

“Right, well,” The nervous brunette continued. “I may…no I definitely…..no I think. Yeah think sounds better…..I think I have a crush on Mitchell…..” he mumbled in a really soft voice.

_______________________

Nico had to strain to hear what Connor had said but once he did he couldn’t help but smile.

He could tease him but he refrained, the poor boy looked like he was having a hard time as it was.

“Oh…is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

Connor sighed and raked a hand through his unruly hair. “It feels like a good thing but what if its a bad thing? What if I ruin the whole friendship?”

“Look. You’ll never get anywhere just keeping this all bottled up….believe me, I would know. I honestly think that you should tell him…or at least get a better grap on your feeling for him. Like yeah, right now you think you have a crush on him but…you never know..you know?”

Okay, one thing that Nico was uncomfortable with and something he thought he was horrible at was comforting someone. He never really knew what to say.

But it seemed to be enough for Connor.

“Yeah…I…I get where you’re coming from….and….and I…I really like him Nico. I know that. But its just….its easier to call it a crush, you know? Makes it seem less real in a way…..but I don’t know about telling him I mean what if-”

“See that right there will eat you away,” Nico interrupted. “Those 'what if’s’ are holding you back and they are hurting more than you know. Just…..I know okay. I know it’s scary to put yourself out like that….I do…..but believe me when I say that it takes a weight off your shoulders that feels absolutely unreal.”

___________________

Connor was shocked. Since when was Spooks so wise? It was surprising yeah, but it was also really inspiring. Getting advice from someone who’s been in your shoes actually feels incredible. It makes you feel a little lighter on your feet in a way. So will some newfound courage he nodded enthusiastically.

“You’re right! I’ll tell him! I’ll tell him as soon as he walks through the door!”

But then he deflated and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw said boy of his affections walk in at that moment.

“Maybe I won’t….maybe tomorrow….”

That’s when he felt a surprisingly hard punch to his arm. “Ow! What the fuck Spooks!? We were having a moment!”

Connor was set on complaining until he saw the frown on the Italian’s face.

“No. There won’t be a tomorrow! Because tomorrow will turn into next time. And next time comes and turns into next week. Next thing you know it’s six years later! You’re telling him. Tonight.”

Connor gulped. “But how?….there are way too many people….how will I get him alone?”

And that’s when the brunette caught sight of the famous Mischief Smirk of Nico di Fucking Angelo.

“Leave that to me.” Nico practically purred.

((Beta tested. Beta approved by [@honestoafault](https://tmblr.co/mZOSXOnwwg1keGYlXNnN-dQ) ))


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuff happens at the party. Nico is a little shit. I am so bad at summaries.

The party was pretty much in full swing when Mitchell decided to show up, okay decided wasn’t really the word for it, more like worked up the courage to walk in. Which was just silly. At least to him.

This was new. To be nervous to walk into Connor’s house. He had done it plenty of times in the past…but this was different. Unlike then, Mitchell was very aware of his feelings for Connor. Oh how he wished for it to be like simpler times when he was an oblivious idiot. Don’t we all, Buddy? Don’t we all?

But Connor had looked so hopeful and excited and stupidly cute when he had invited him to the party that Mitchell just could not refuse.

Which he was still chastising himself about.

When he couldn’t spot the familiar mop of brown curls amongst all the bodies in the room he sighed in relief before making his way to the punch bowl. He at least had time to calm himself before his best friend found him or vice versa.

It was weird. Usually he was the person people went to for relationship advice, he was the expert so to say since his mother was a pretty well known matchmaker, but when it came to himself, it was like all his knowledge about love and relationships and flirting(etc.)went out the window. It was laughable really.

As he zoned out, lost in his thoughts he almost didn’t notice someone standing right beside him. Almost.

He will admit he jumped and his heart was racing so rapidly the blue headed teen thought he could have out beat a hummingbird for crying out loud. And it didn’t slow down in the least when he recognized the person as Reyna, Connor’s older sister.

“H-Hey Reyna. I didn’t see you there.” Was his eloquent reply as he placed a hand over his heart and sighed, flashing the dark haired girl a small smile.

Reyna lifted an eyebrow and the corner of her lip twitched, she was amused, that much is clear.

“Hey Mitchell. I could tell.” she said with a small chuckle as she grabbed a cup of punch, took a sip, promptly stuck out her tongue and made a noise of disgust before setting it down.

‘Note to self: the punch is spiked. DONT DRINK IT!’ Mitchell reminded himself and shoved the memory of last St. Patrick’s day when Connor and Travis had thrown another party down into a dark corner in his mind.

“So what are you doing here? Normally you don’t come to your brother’s parties.” Mitchell questioned, trying to make conversation.

Reyna nodded as a way of agreeing him and promptly crossed her arms. “Well normally, I’m not supposed to know about these parties…which I really don’t see how I’m not supposed to notice when I go to the same school as Connor and Travis, I think they forget that sometimes, and plus the parties are always at my house? Like, I honestly don’t know how they think I don’t know about them. Usually I just ignore them and go hang out with Nico. I can allow the boys some fun, as long as everyone behaves in some sense and as long as they clean up, then I’m good.” The brunette explained with a sharp nod as though mentally agreeing with herself this time. “I came to this one because it didn’t follow their pattern.”

Mitchell laughed. He actually asked himself how Reyna hadn’t known about the parties since, again, they were in her house. Now this explained it perfectly. “That explains a lot actually.” He mused.

“Wait….what do you mean it didn’t follow their pattern?”

“Oh you didn’t notice?”

Mitchell shook his head.

“Well normally they only throw parties after big games, midterms, finals, and dances,” Reyna explained, “Also holidays, but like the big ones like Christmas and Halloween, not the smaller ones like St. Patrick’s Day… but our parents know about those ones, and those ones tend to be mild compared to these.”

As if to prove her point a guy stripped down to his underwear with a mustache and monocle drawn on his face and a paper bowl placed on his head like a hat, ran past them and out the back door and into the pool with a big splash.

She then turned to him with a 'see-what-i-mean’ look. “But anyways what’s wrong with you? You looked deep in thought when I came to talk.”

To many, Reyna might have sounded harsh and intimidating him for answers, but he knew her well and long enough to know that she was actually worried about him.

And at any other time he would gladly rant to her about his problems …..if his problems weren’t about liking her younger brother so damn much!

But on the other hand, Reyna was not one of those people that teased you if they knew you were having a hard time with something or someone. She would give the best advice she could and Mitchell really admired her for it. So maybe he could tell her what was wrong….“she is a rather trustworthy person.” He thought.

Just as he was about to tell her all about his troubles, someone had fallen into him, making him tilt back and…uh oh the punch bowl is tipping. Tipping towards him. The person who ran into him is already standing up and probably apologising. And then they realized he was still falling and tried to grab his hand to help. But it was too late. For the help. And the punch.

As he was getting coated in the more-alcohol-than-punch punch, he recognized the person that had fallen into him was Nico di Angelo. A smirking Nico di Angelo.

'Why is he smirking?’  
“I’m so sorry!” Nico exclaimed as he held out a hand to a very soaked Mitchell.

He helped the boy up and tried to make himself look innocent but Reyna was having none of that. She knew. She always knows.

Thank goodness Mitchell didn’t know. Though he did look kind of suspicious of Nico.

“Its…..fine.” Mitchell stated calmly. On the inside he was kinda upset. He spent quite a while choosing his outfit for tonight and now he smelt heavily of alcohol. And he felt sticky. Which is awful since he felt sticky everywhere. And I do mean everywhere.

With a grimace and a sigh he tried to maneuver his way to the bathroom after waving goodbye to Nico and Reyna. He completely missed Reyna narrowing her eyes at Nico who in turn was wearing a shit eating grin.

___________________

“Woah! Ewwwwwwwww! Dude why are you so sticky?” Connor so eloquently asked as he quite literally ran into Mitchell on his way to Nico to ask him what the hell all that was.

Mitchell was frowning as he muttered something under his breath and pushed himself off of Connor’s chest.   
  
Sensing his distress Connor placed a hand gently on the small of Mitchell’s back and led him up to his room.

“D-Do you want to use our shower?” Connor asked as he rubbed the back of his neck and closed the door behind them. Mitchell stood in the middle with his arms crossed and a pout ever present on his face. Connor was definitely not thinking about kissing that pout off those lips. Yeah definitely not. Psssh totally not.

“I’m fine…..it’s mostly my jacket that got wet….and my pants a little bit but since we wear the same size can I borrow some?” Mitchell asked with a sigh as he took off his jacket with a grimace.

The two often shared clothes so this was nothing new but nevertheless Connor still blushed. “Y-Yeah. Of course. Pick which ever one’s you would like. You can even just slip on some sweats if you want.”

“Mmm…..I would prefer sweats but it is a party so I’ll just throw on some of your jeans. Are the pink and blue one’s clean?”

“They should be. I haven’t worn them in a while.”

________________________

Mitchell was pretty proud of himself for acting calm throughout this whole ordeal, because on the inside he was freaking the fuck out.

He, of course, has been in Connor’s room many times before now but that was before he realized his feelings. Now he felt….nervous, almost being in his best friends room and borrowing his clothing. Again, this was something they always did. But now Mitchell was aware of how the clothes fit on him as he slipped on the jeans that got dyed pink and blue from a prank war and one of Connor’s graphic t-shirts. They were soft and had a distinct smell of dawn laundry softener, Old Spice deodorant, and campfire smoke, a smell distinctly Connor. It was comforting.

Once he had changed he turned around and noticed Connor facing the opposite direction in order to give him some privacy. He smiled fondly at the boy before him before clearing his throat. “I’m done.”

The brunet turned around and smiled at him. “I’m sorry that happened to you. Who knew Nico was so clumsy?”

“I know right? Maybe he had some of the…"punch”.“ Mitchell suggested with a shrug.

"Maybe…..uh…here!,” Connor exclaimed as he held out his letterman jacket to Mitchell with a blush on his face.

Well it looked like a blush but maybe Mitchell was just imagining it. Maybe it was too hot in the room despite the window being open?

Connor must have sensed his confusion because he let out a soft chuckle and draped the jacket over Mitchell’s shoulders. They were so close now! Their faces merely inches away. “I figured this will keep you warm on your way home. I’ll give you back your jacket tomorrow, all cleaned up.” he murmured softly as they both gazed into each others eye distractedly.

“Okay…..” Mitchell whispered back, as he was incapable of thinking anything else other than, 'I really wanna kiss him!’

And maybe he was going to because he felt himself leaning in and maybe it was just his imagination again because he could have sworn that Connor was also leaning in.

God they were so close Mitchell could feel Connor’s breath fanning across his face. It was warm.

It was so warm.

They were getting closer.

And closer.

Until.

There was a shrill scream from downstairs that made them jolt apart and stare at each other before they both rushed downstairs. 

(( beta tested, beta approved ❤ [@honestoafault](https://tmblr.co/mZOSXOnwwg1keGYlXNnN-dQ) [on tumblr] ))


	22. Chapter 22

As soon as Mitchell left with Connor, Reyna slowly turned towards Nico and crossed her arms. "Why did you do that?" 

Nico smiled as innocently as he could at her and chuckled, "What ever do you mean?" 

Reyna gave him a look that let him know she didn't believe a single word he said. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well your brother was telling me about how he would tell Mitchell how he felt but he didn't want to do it at a party where he couldn't get him alone without looking suspicious or something like that, so I told him that I would help."

"And your idea of helping is knocking some poor kid into a giant ass bowl of punch?" Reyna asked in a dissapointed tone as one of her eyebrows raised. 

Nico gave her another sheepish smile. "It was the only thing I could think of." He weakly defended. 

"What was the only thing you could think of?" A familiar voice interrupted. 

The Italian quickly turned around and was pleased to see Will standing behind him wearing that dazzling smile he always wore. Nico smiled softly at him. 

"Uh, nothing. You're hear finally!" 

"I'm sorry it took so long but the car kept giving us trouble and eventually I had to call one of my brothers to come give us a ride. To my surprise both of them showed up."

Reyna looked surprised at that and chuckled. "Your brothers actually drove you to a high school party? Like actually?"

Will sighed as he ran a hand through his hair and laughed. "Yup. They were even proud of me...? It was weird. I'm pretty sure Matthew teared up a little." 

Nico laughed at that. "Oh wow."

"Yeah so that was how my night has gone so far, how about yours?" Will asked as he leaned closer to Nico and slung an arm around his shoulder. 

"More interesting than I thought it would be actually."

"Oh? Does this have something to do with what you and Reyna were talking about?"

Before he could even utter a single word, Reyna cut in. "He pushed Mitchell into a bowl of punch."

While the dark haired teen glared at his best friend, Will gave Nico a shocked look and then he looked disappointed. 

"Nico, why?"

"Okay she makes it sound a lot wprse than it was. It was to help Connor talk to Mitchell in private! I admit there was probably a better way to go about it but that was all I could think of. And it worked! They're up in Connor's room right now probably sucking face." Nico defended himself as best he could as he pouted. He really didn't want his somewhat boyfriend to be lecturing him when they could be hanging out with each other instead. 

Sensing his distress, Reyna and Will decided to give it a rest - at least for now. 

___________________

Things were going great. Will even somehow convinced Nico to dance with him, and he knew Nico took dance and everything but it was still surprising how good he had danced and how alluring he looked while doing it. 

Their little group of Reyna, Lou Ellen, Cecil, Nico, and himself pretty much stuck together. And they were having fun, that is until Nico stopped laughing. Will had turned to him to see what was wrong, his eyes were wide open, his lips slightly parted and he went pale, well more so. 

He and Reyna dragged Nico into a quiet part of the house, Reyna's bedroom. He didn't even protest, he just let himself be dragged and Will did not like that one bit. 

"Nico, what's wrong?" Reyna asked as she grabbed his shoulders and tried to get him to look her in the eyes. But they were so distant and unfocused. 

Will was worried, really worried as he brushed Nico's bangs out of his face and felt how cold the boy was. "No..." Nico murmured. 

"No, what? You need to talk to us, Angel." The blond stated as he cupped Nico's face. 

His dark eyes slowly seemed to come into focus but neither Reyna nor Will let him go. 

"We need to get everyone out of here. Now. I don't know how....I don't know why, but there is a poltergeist here. A very strong one."

"A poltergeist?" Will asked incredulously. 

Now Reyna looked worried. 

"Yes a poltergeist! And it's not happy and it's violent and we need-!!" A scream cut through Nico's hysterics. 

The three were silent until they heard more screams, and all at once they ran back to the party. 

As they ran, they had somehow met up with Mitchell and Connor. 

"What's going on?" Connor asked worriedly. 

"We don't know! Let's hurry!" Will answered as he grabbed Nico's hand and felt it tremble. 

They ran until they came into the room of screaming teens. They were trying to open the door, the windows, anything, but they weren't opening. And a good chunk of them were frozen and starring at something with their mouths parted. 

Will felt Nico tug his hand out of his and turned to ask if he was okay but stopped when he saw what everyone was staring at. 

There in the air was a boy suspended. His back was arched at an unusual angle, his mouth was wide open....and his arms...and his legs....they were being pulled into odd angles. It was terrifying. 

And Nico...Nico was so pale but he looked angry. Will saw him practically lock his jaw. 

And then everyone was screaming again as the boy started to fall to the floor. Some guys actually went to catch him. Probably his friends. As they checked on him to make sure he was okay Nico turned to look at some of the football players. 

"Look, those doors aren't opening right? Break open the windows we need to get out of here now!" He shouted. 

Everyone looked shocked, but as stuff started to levitate and thrown around, they listened. 

It was chaos. 

Pure chaos. 

Nico continued to glare up at the chandelier, it looked as though he was having a silent conversation with someone. 

As soon as the football players got some windows out of the way the door burst open. People didn't question it. They just ran. 

Will nearly got trampled as he tried to get Nico to move. With the help of Percy, who seemed to come out of nowhere and Reyna, they got him out of there. 

This was more excitement than Will wanted when going to his first party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta tested, beta approved @honesttoafault


	23. Chapter 23

School was hell. 

Okay, more so than usual, but still. 

People were still talking about Ghost King but not as much as they were talking about the party. It had been a week since then and still, all people seemed capable of doing was talking about the stupid party.

It was a constant buzz in Nico's head. 

The kid who got possessed was in the hospital still recovering both mentally and physically, yet a lot of people kept trying to interview him. Didn't they have anything better to do? Didn't they know he was still freaking out? That he was still trying to come to terms with what happened to him? The sad thing is that, maybe not all of them, but a good chunk of those people wanting an interview, did know all that. And yet they are still trying. Still pushing. 

It made Nico feel sick. 

So, all in all, Nico was having a bad day. 

____________________

Reyna knew Nico wasn't having the best of days, hell, even she wasn't. 

After the party had ended and after talking to the police, a neighbor had called because of the commotion, it was up to her and her brothers to pick up everything and clean as best as they could before they called their parents. Of course their parents weren't happy, but they were glad not too many people got hurt. All three of them were grounded, which was understandable, and if that wasn't enough, Connor somehow caught a nasty cold. So he was somewhat off the hook with their parents, still grounded, but their mom was kinda babying him. 

So yeah, Reyna wasn't in the best of moods either, but she was worried about the Italian. She knew he was angry and frustrated, but he looked more...empty than anything. Will tried his best to pull his somewhat-boyfriend out of his own mind but to no avail. But he seemed to understand how Nico worked and was content to just stay by his side in case he needed anything. 

And Reyna appreciated that, she really, really did. Right now, Nico needed his space but he also needed someone to be around just in case. I suppose the best way to explain it would be that Nico needed space emotionally, he needed time to think, but he needed the physical comfort of someone being beside him. 

Reyna has seen him like this before, when she found him at an old psychiatric hospital, the one where he got attacked pretty bad. He usually got over it quickly, but the other times he was like this, is because he got hurt, not anyone else. 

But besides the whole incident, the school was also talking about a lacrosse player, specifically Mitchell. It would seem as though he had been wearing Connor's Letterman jacket around today. So people were assuming they got together.

Reyna wished they were, but alas that hasn't happened yet.

She shrugged to herself before gently leading Nico out of their class and to Demeter's Garden where Will was waiting for them. 

____________________

Mitchell was kind of having a crisis. He had accidentally worn Connor's Letterman jacket to school. Yes, it was an accident! He had forgotten that Connor had given him his to wear at the party, so when he woke up that morning, he had woken up late and rushed to get ready. In the process of getting ready he grabbed the first jacket he could before rushing to school. 

And now he was paying for it. Everyone kept asking him if Connor and him were dating. It didn't matter how many people asked him, he still blushed and denied it, yet people still kept asking and asking and asking!

It wasn't his fault he was in a rush this morning, okay....in a way it was, but It was also Connor's fault. Mitchell had been worried about him and found out he had gotten a cold, so he called him last night to see how he was feeling, he sounded bad but Connor assured him that he was doing a lot better than a few days ago. And then they somehow got sidetracked and ended up talking until one in the morning.

So it was a group effort. 

Mitchell was glad that Connor was doing well, his cough even went away so it was just a stuffy/runny nose and a slight fever he was suffering from. And since he was feeling better they decided it would be okay for Mitchell to go visit, which he was looking forward to. 

He just had to get through the school day and then he would get to see Connor, and that was actually great motivation for when he had to deal with all the people asking him what wearing Connor's jacket "means" and stuff. 

________________

Finally! It was the end of the day and Nico could not wait anymore. Once the bell rang Nico ran to Reyna and begged her to take him to her house to do a shprt investigation. Before this whole thing went down he knew that Reyna's house was spirit free, with the exception of their deceased dog. So it didn't make sense that a poltergeist was at the party, it didn't make sense at all. 

When they arrived at the house, they both realised that Reyna's parents weren't home. 

"They're working late tonight I guess." Reyna mumbled. 

Nico absentmindedly nodded before walking around the house and stepping inside the rooms. So far he hadn't felt anything but he wanted to be thorough so he made his way upstairs. He could hear someone down in the kitchen and since he had just walked into Connor's room he guessed that it was him probably making himself soup. Actually he was probably heating up soup that his mom had made him. 

He gently closed the door behind him as Reyna passed by and said she'd be in her room if he needed anything. 

Nico just stood there and closed his eyes, trying to sense something, anything. As he was doing so he heard someone coming up the stairs, actually two people. One was definitely Connor, and the other was....was that Mitchell? 

They were getting closer, and now they were in front of the door. 

What was Nico supposed to do? He didn't exactly have an excuse as to why he was in Connor's room, nor could he come up with one right now! So he did what he thought best to do. 

He hid under the bed. And boy did he wish he picked the closet, he bet it would be cleaner than under the bed where he was joined by dirty clothes, empty and half empty water bottles, and various food wrappers, also some papers and textbooks. 

But before he could move, the door opened and in walked Connor and Mitchell. 

"Thanks for coming by." Connor mumbled as he sat on his bed with a thud, thus effectively squishing Nico, who was trying not to make a noise. 

"No problem, I figured you were lonely, and plus I brought back your jacket."

"Ah, sweet! I was wondering where that was. I kinda forgot that I lent It to you." 

Nico wanted to laugh at that because Connor did not forget. He had been texting and talking to him and Reyna about it ever since the party. More so when Reyna sent a picture of Mitchell wearing it during school. 

"Well then it's a good thing I brought it. So you're really feeling better?"

"Yup. But I wish I wasn't practically drowning in used tissues. Besides that though I feel great. I'll probably be at school tomorrow."

"I knew you couldn't stay away from me." Mitchell joked. 

Nico barely refrained himself from headbutting the floor. 

"Of course I couldn't," Connor exclaimed. Nico could tell by his tone that he wasn't joking. Was he going to confess? Right now? Nico was hoping not, he didn't want to intrude on the moment. " I like being with you.I like you."

And there was the confession.

"I like you too, dork." Mitchell chuckled and Nico could feel him sit in the bed as well. Obviously he didn't get what Connor said.

"No. Mitchell...I mean....I like-like....you....." 

Oh god, Nico needed to get out of here! Now!

"Oh."

"I'm sorry, but I've been wanting to tell you, but I was scared of what you'd say and I didn't want to ruin our friendship. And I think I just did. And I'm sorry. Please ignore what I said-"

"No! I mean not no, I mean me too. I like-like you too..." 

And there was the other confession. Nico didn't refrain himself from hitting his head on the floor, but he did do it softly. 

Huh.. 

It got quiet ....

And the weight of both of them was shifting.....

Oh...oh no....were they kissing?

"I'm sorry! I know I'm sick but I just really wanted to kiss you and-"

"Do it again." Mitchell whispered.

__________________

Well this was certainly not how he planned his visit to be, but Mitchell couldn't be happier. 

Especially when a red faced Connor smiled at him so fondly and was leaning in for another kiss. Mitchell leaned in as well and then they were kissing again. Just as soft as the the first had been. Connor's lips were warm and a but chapped but they were perfect. 

They ended up breaking the kiss when they thought they heard the door close. 

"What was that?" 

"Reyna probably went downstairs or something." 

Mitchell nodded before hugging Connor and burying his face in his chest. He couldn't help but smile as Connor rubbed circles into his back. 

"I'm really happy that you told me. I...I was scared too."

"I'm happy I did too. So happy. You have no idea." Connor murmured into Mitchell's hair before he planted a kiss on it. 

____________________

Meanwhile Reyna was trying to comfort an embarrassed Nico who was sprawled out on her bed and hiding his red face in her pillows. 

"I didn't want to see that! I feel so bad!" Nico mumbled.

"Well, it's not like they noticed you. I think it's fine, Nico."

As a reply Nico made a long strangled noise. 

"So....find anything?"

That got Nico to stop and actually sit up. His blush was slowly dying down as he scowled. 

"No. That's the weird thing....if it didn't come from the house then that means..."

"That means?"

"That means it followed someone here.... That means that someone has a poltergeist attatched to them and that is not a good thing."

Not a good thing indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta tested, Beta Approved <3 @honesttoafault


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shit is only going to get shittier folks. So buckle up and prepare yourself! We also got some more Solangelo and Conchell fluff coming up in the next chapters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually might have to change the ratings at some point. If by some chance there will be a death could I still keep it as mature??? Asking for a friend. :3
> 
> Also sorry again for the late update. College and health man.

"So that can actually happen? A poltergeist can attach itself to a person?" Reyna asked. She was totally baffled by the statement. She knew that poltergeists existed. Of course she did. Her best friend was a ghost hunter and medium for crying out loud. But to know that a poltergeist could attach itself to someone was actually pretty frightening to think of. 

Nico nodded as he hugged one of her pillows to his body. "It's not very common but it does happen. And that seems to be the case this time..." 

"Do you have any idea who this poltergeist is and who they are connected too?"

"No. And that's what annoys me. It could have been anyone at the party. Which means anyone in our school and even people not from our school. There was quite a bit of students from that one high school that's on the other side of town."

"So basically we're still at square one?"

"Basically. We're kind of at square one point five now that we know the poltergeist isn't tied to your house nor anyone in the house. It's not much, but it helps lower down the possibilities."

"You believe that?"

Nico hugged the pillow tighter to his body and scowled. He squeezed his fingers and released them over and over again. Squeezed until his knuckles turned white and released just to watch them slowly turn red. 

"Honestly. I don't know. I've....never dealt with this. I've dealt with a lot of shit, but this is a whole new level of shit."

Reyna patted his shoulder gently before giving it a soft squeeze. They were not touch affectionate with each other and that is why small instances like these, meant the world. 

"Well....we'll deal with it the best we can. How's.....How are you and Will doing?"

Reyna could immediately see Nico's mood improve at the mention of the blond. He even have her a small smile. 

"We're good. He's....he's great. He texts and calls everyday to make sure I'm okay. And at lunch he brings me healthy shit to snack on. Apparently it's good for me."

"Is it good for you, you idiot." 

"Yeah, okay. Anyways....he uh, he's coming over for dinner at my house on Friday."

"Please don't tell me that Persephone is cooking that dinner."

"Oh god no. Bianca is going to make it. Come on, I don't want to poison the guy I like." 

"Oh thank goodness." 

The two laughed, glad for the short distraction.

"Yeah...he's pretty nervous."

"He should be."

"Reyna!"

"What? Even I was nervous the first time I met your dad. He's kind of intimidating."

Nico pouted and threw a pillow at her but she expertly dodged it and threw it right back at him. "He's not that bad." Nico whined out as he smushed his face into the pillow that he still held captive in his arms. 

Reyna was still slightly surprised when Nico showed his selfish side to her, no matter how many times he did it. It just went to show how close they were. People even believed that they were siblings all through middle school. She liked when he whined or complained, it showed his trust in her, and she knew she could always be selfish with him as well. 

Reyna's usual response to his whining had always been sarcasm, so Nico didn't expect any other kind of response to him defending his dad than a raised a brow and a snort. "Okkayyy. Whatever you say." 

"He's not. I keep telling Will that but he just rolls his eyes everytime I do." The Italian muttered with a pout. 

"So what does he think of this whole poltergeist situation?"

The dark haired boy bit his lip before frowning at the bed spread. "He's not happy about it."

"I don't think anyone is."

"I mean he's not happy about me getting involved."

"Oh. Well that makes sense."

"I guess...But...I can't help but get involved you know? Anyways, I better get home. My dad and I have to Skype the producers over at the Oracle to let them know where I'll be investigating next." 

"Okay. Text me when you get home. See you tomorrow." 

Nico eventually let go of the pillow and set it on the bed as he got up and stretched. He grabbed his backpack and gave Reyna a quick hug before heading out. On the walk back to his house he couldn't help but try and remember who was close to the poltergeist at the party. But the faces of everyone just blurred together. There was also the fact that people were running around everywhere trying to get out of the house. And it's not like anyone had actually caught a good video of what happened. They were too scared... 

Maybe Nico should be scared too? But the strange thing is...is that he wasn't. He was mad. He was mad that all this happened and he couldn't do anything to help the situation. Poltergeists never listened. They don't want to listen. They are greedy and angry and they want power. They feed off fear. Much like demons. 

But poltergeists can be dealt with a lot easier than demons. 

But that would require knowing who the poltergeist is attached to first, which led Nico back to his square one point five. 

It didn't help that the producers over at the Oracle wanted him to do a coverage of the poltergeist for more views. Hades quickly shot that idea down. But there was also his followers on YouTube who wanted him to get involved. It's not like Nico didn't want to get involved, he basically was already, but he just didn't want anyone to catch on to the fact that he was Ghost King, he also didn't want anyone else to get hurt. There was also the fact that there was no facts that were useful as of that moment. It was frustrating as all hell! 

Nico raked a hand through his unruly hair and couldn't stop the growl that passed his lips. Once he got home he honestly just wanted to sleep and not deal with the producers, and it seemed like his dad could see that because he told Nico that he would deal with them and for Nico to go rest. 

The smaller male smiled gratefully before heading up to his room and flopping on his stomach onto the bed. Before sleep could overtake him, he felt his phone vibrate incessantly. He sluggishly grabbed it from his pocket before answering with a muffled, "Yeah?"

"Hey di Angelo, how's my favorite person doing?" 

Nico smiled sleepily as he rolled over to his back so his voice wasn't muffled by his pillows. 

"Hey Solace. I'm okay. Sleepy."

"Aren't you always?" 

"Shut up. So what's up with you? How are you doing?"

"I'm good. A little annoyed..."

"Annoyed?"

"Yeah. People keep complaining about, well, you. Well I mean, Ghost King, but same difference."

"Is it because I'm not doing the poltergeist thing?"

"....yeah."

"I figured. Believe me I'm getting called a lot of names in the comment section and on Twitter."

"But why? I just don't understand why you are getting the back lash. You didn't hurt that Ethan guy, the poltergeist did!"

Nico could hear Will's frustration, could practically taste it. 

"They want -- no -- they NEED someone to blame. They wanted me to help with this, for now, hopeless case. But I can't help them. Not just for personal reasons but because this poltergeist isn't connected to a house."

"Wait.....what? What do you mean it's not connected to a house? Aren't they supposed to be connected to a house?"

"Mostly they are, but this one, I believe anyways, is connected to a person. I've been to Reyna's house more times than I can count, I've never sensed anything like a poltergeist before. And yes poltergeists can show up seemingly out of random, but they would remain in the house after manifesting. They might not even be as pronounced but their energy would still be there."

"So....this one is connected to someone? Someone we know?"

"I don't know."

"So someone from the party?"

"Yes."

"Do you know who?" 

"No. God I wish I did. That would make this a whole lot easier." 

"I'm sorry that you're dealing with all this. I don't like that you are getting involved but-"

"I know. You've said that about a hundred times already."

"BUT, just know that I'll help in anyway I can."

"Thanks sunshine." Nico whispered, his cheeks warmer than before. 

"No need to thank me Angel. It's my pleasure. But enough about that whole mess. Tell me more of what I can expect on Friday."

And Nico happily did so until he fell asleep with his phone in his hand and a soft smile on his face.

___________________________

'YOU CAN'T IGNORE ME BOY! NOT FOREVER! THIS WORLD IS MINE! YOU WILL BE MY VESSEL! 

STOP DENYING IT! 

STOP!

STOP!'

The boy clutched at his hair, the voice was back. It was back and louder than before. As it began to throw things around his room he grit his teeth and shut his eyes tightly. 

He didn't want this. He didn't ask for this. 

......okay that was a lie. But he didn't think it would actually work! 

He should have listened to what people say about Ouija boards. He thought it was all a bunch of bologna. Until now that is. 

Finally, the yelling and the flying objects stopped. It was a nice silence. 

But he knew it was just the calm before the storm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((Beta tested, Beta approved ❤ @honesttoafault ))


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A cute moment of peace before the shit storm. It is a pretty cute moment of peace if i do say so myself. Awkward and Nervous Will makes an appearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again sorry for the late update, but i do have other fics to update and plus, i got more hours at work so i'm pretty busy. Hopefully I'll be able to set up a schedule for myself once i get used to the more hours.

Will’s hand hovered in front of the large mahogany door, he wanted to knock but he couldn’t bring himself to do so. He was about to have dinner with his almost-boyfriend’s family. So he was more than a little nervous, if the mansion-like house wasn’t intimidating, then Nico’s father certainly was. Will had never really met him, not in depth anyways, they’ve exchanged short hello’s and ‘how are you’s, but that was it. He had also heard stories about him from Nico himself, Percy, Jason, Annabeth, Hazel, Grover, Apollo, hell, even Reyna was intimidated by him. There was a reason why Hades was called Lord of the Underworld in the Law and Business areas of New York, actually he probably was known throughout most of the fifty states since he sometimes travels for cases and to his store locations. 

Will’s hand still hovered but his gaze fell from the door down to his sneakers. What if Nico’s family doesn’t like him? Okay, well Hazel liked him. But the rest could probably change her mind if they don’t like him. What if he chewed too loud? Or made an inappropriate joke? Or! What if he accidentally insults Persephone or Bianca? If he did that it was all over. So yeah, his hand still hovered and his arm was tired but he didn’t move. He wanted to, but he didn’t. 

Just when his arm felt like it was going to fall off the door swung open. Will glanced from his original view of his sneakers up to the man he was most scared to meet. “Hello, William.” Hades said, his face was void of any emotion as he side stepped and looked at Will, whom promptly walked in with a sheepish chuckle. 

“Hi, Mr. di Angelo. And….uh…you can just call me Will.”

“Very well, Will. You can just call me Mr. di Angelo.”

Will gulped and gave Hades a small smile. The two just stood there looking at one another, well Hades gaze never wavered, Will’s however did, but he would always meet Nico’s dad’s eye. It continued to be that way until Nico himself came from the kitchen and frowned at his dad. “Dad. Stop trying to scare him.” Nico lectured as he walked over to Will and grabbed his hand to drag him over to the kitchen. 

“I was just having a bit of fun, son.” Hades teased as he followed his son and his ‘friend’ to the kitchen, he stopped to give Persephone a kiss on the cheek as she walked past carrying a bowl of mashed potatoes to the table. Will stood by Nico awkwardly after he said hi to Hazel and Bianca and looked around, he’s been to Nico’s house before but only in his room and occasionally the living room but that was before they were some-what dating. 

“Dinner is ready, Will, will you help set the table?” Persephone asked with a sweet smile towards the blond. Will immediately nodded, “Yes, Ma’am.” 

“Oh sweetie, you don’t need to call me Ma’am, call me Persephone.”

Will only nodded as a response since he was concentrating on not dropping the plates he was carrying over to the table. As he set them down he glanced to the right and saw a dining room, he stared at Nico and raised an eyebrow. “Why aren’t we eating in there?”

Nico turned to look at the dining room as well and shrugged. “We’ve never really used it. The dining room is only for important events, like a company dinner or big family thing, but neither of those have happened since my dad hates his coworkers, and he hates our other relatives.” As soon as he finished saying that, as though he was summoned, Hades was behind Nico and gave him a soft slap to the back of the head. Nico gave a small wince but smiled at his dad and took a swing at him but missed. 

“Stop spreading rumors.”

“They’re not rumors they are the truth.”

“I don’t hate our relatives.”

“Demeter.”

“…Touché.” 

Will laughed at their antics and Nico flashed him a playful grin as Persephone, Bianca, and Hazel carried in the rest of the food. They then took their seats, but before Nico could sit, Will pulled out his chair for him and gently pushed him in. They exchanged shy smiles as Will sat in between Nico and Bianca. 

“Now what is this about hating my mother?” Persephone asked. 

 

Dinner went by better than Will would have expected. The only left to do would take a lot of courage on his part but it felt like he was ready. 

“Hades?”

“Yes, Will?”

The blond licked his lips as he fiddled with his napkin, Nico gave him a curious side glance and put a hand on his knee. Will nodded to himself before looking up at Hades. 

“Sir, I would like to ask your permission to date Nico. I would really like to date him. We already told each other that we…that we like each other. We’ve been on dates but I would like to officially call him my boyfriend. So can I please? Again, it would mean the world to me because your son means the worl-“

“I’ve heard enough.” 

Will stopped his rambling and refused to look at anyone, the table sure looked interesting. He took in a deep breath to try and calm himself down but his heart was still racing, his cheeks and ears were on fire, and the world felt slightly off axis. Nico wasn’t doing much better, his eyes were wide open, and his heart felt like a hummingbird’s. It didn’t help that Persephone and his sisters were cackling. Will slowly lifted his gaze and met Hades, who he realized was looking at him and smirking. He would deny the fact that he had squeaked as Hades leaned over the table. 

“Okay.” 

“Um, what?”

“I said okay.”

“It’s about time.” Hazel sing-songed. 

“Honestly.” Persephone agreed as Bianca nodded.

Nico buried his face in his hands and mumbled incoherently while Will glanced at him still blushing fiercely. After a couple minutes, they had all calmed down and happily talked about anything and everything, but the happy conversations ended when Persephone asked about Nico’s show.

Hades growled lowly and crossed his arms. “They are trying to force him into covering that party haunting that happened. They say that a lot of viewers are asking for Ghost King to cover the event, and many are mad that he refuses to do it. The producers are trying to say that he is legally binded to do so.”

“But he’s, not right?” Bianca asked as she stared at her baby brother who looked equally as upset as their father, maybe even more. Will looked absolutely livid as he rubbed soft circles on Nico’s back to help calm him down, it seemed to help. Not by much, but it did help. Bianca could tell by the way Nico’s shoulders sagged just a tad, and how his eyebrows weren’t as furrowed, he also started to lean closer to Will. Hazel had one hand on her brother’s shoulder and the other was holding his hand, that also helped to calm him down while Persephone was trying to do the same for her husband. 

“No. He’s not. And they would know that if they read through the whole contract I drew up with their lawyers. They are not only incompetent but it would seem as though they are also illiterate.”

“….Is there any news on the ghost?” Hazel questioned as she slowly rubbed her brothers arm.

“I…I’ve been doing research since the last time I went over to Reyna’s,” Nico started, “I had told all of you that I thought it was a poltergeist that was attached to a person. Well…Now I’m not so sure.”

“Why?” Hades was confused as to why this hadn’t come up sooner. 

Nico licked his lips and sat up straighter, he scratched the back of his neck and sighed. “Nico?” Will mumbled in a soft voice as he observed his boyfriend. 

“I told you about the poltergeist theory….I haven’t told you guys about…about the demon theory.” 

(( Beta tested, Beta approved by @honestoafault on the tumbles.))


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico tells his family his thoughts, the happy times have come to an end it would seem, and the mystery boy has given in to the power.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have given more hints as to who the mystery boy is and whether the voice/entity is a demon or poltergeist! I'm curious to see your guys's thoughts on those two things! 10 points to whoever can guess who and what they are. 
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy the chapter.

“Demons?” Hades questioned slowly, he caught the eyes of everyone at the table except for his son’s. 

Hades watched as his son’s frown deepened and him start to fiddle with the ring on his right hand. It was a nervous habit of his. He would twirl it if he was scared, of if he was uncertain. Hades was having a hard time distinguishing which reason it was this time. But he was willing to bet it was both. His son never scared easily, but it was always easy to tell when he was scared, at least for him it was. He would squint his eyes and his left eye would twitch, it was the same way Hades himself acted when he was scared. He would put on a brave face but on the inside, he would be shaking.

Nico bit his lip before he sighed and slowly raised his head to make eye contact with his father. “Demons.” He confirmed before continuing. “I had first brought up demons with Reyna when I was explaining poltergeists and well, that got me thinking. What if this is actually a demon we’re dealing with? Poltergeists and demons have a lot of similarities so it’s easy to confuse their energy. Both are really malevolent.”

Hades watched as his son’s now boyfriend placed a hand over his on the table. Nico turned to look at him and it was as though they were having a conversation by simply looking into each other’s eyes. Nico turned over his hand so that they were holding hands and squeezed the blond’s hand. They continued their conversation and finally Nico look back at his family. “Demons are complicated. They can’t just appear like a poltergeist, they have to be summoned. If this is a demon, someone summoned it.”

“Why would someone summon a demon?” Bianca asked as she cradled her face in one hand that was leaning on the table. 

“Who knows. The reasons vary. Teens think it makes them edgy. Some witches are known to summon demons for personal gain and revenge, but that is only some witches. It could have been a dare. There are just too much options to choose from.” Nico grumbled. He was frustrated, that was to be expected, but he also seemed overwhelmed. Hades hated to see his son overwhelmed, it always ended up with Nico getting sent to the hospital. He never wanted to see his son like that again. Anorexic, pale, weak, and hooked up to monitors and an IV. It was awful. Bianca had been inconsolable at that time, she never left Nico’s side, neither did Hazel. Those two waited till he woke up and took care of them, they were wary of the nurses. 

A soft hand on his knee brought him out of his thoughts and he turned to see Persephone giving him a reassuring smile. She always could tell what he was thinking. It was strange.

“That is true. One time, your father,” Hades began as he nodded toward Will, “decided it would be a great idea to bring an Ouija board to camp and he managed to convince Poseidon and Zeus to try and talk to a demon with it, I called him an idiot and left the cabin.”

“That…certainly sounds like my father.” Will mused in monotone. 

Hades had no doubt that this boy has had to deal with his father’s ridiculousness for far too long. 

“So, you think this could be a poltergeist or a demon?” Hazel asked in a small voice.

“It seems like it.” Nico answered as he rubbed a hand up and down his arm, occasionally scratching. Hades could already see the worry in Bianca’s and Hazel’s eyes, as well as Persephone’s. He was not the only one who caught it, Will did as well, he instead was confused. 

“Nico. Go to your room. Lay down. You should take your medicine. I’ll send Will up in a couple of minutes. Okay?”

Nico did nothing but nod and stand up. He kept spinning and spinning and spinning his ring, his finger was turning red from the friction. He walked past the table and out the kitchen, Hades couldn’t see him but he could hear him heading upstairs. When Hades turned back to talk to Will, the boy was half way out of his seat and looking at the arc way of the kitchen entrance still even though Nico was probably almost to his room. He continued to do so till Hades cleared his throat. 

Will lowered himself back into his seat and swiftly stared at Hades. “What…What’s wrong with him? I mean…Is he okay?” 

“Nico was getting overwhelmed. He doesn’t do well when overwhelmed.”

“Anxiety?” 

“It plays a part in it. But doctors aren’t sure what is wrong. They have theories, but that is all they have. He needs a distraction right now before he makes himself sick. I ask you to be that distraction.” 

“Of course.”

Hades waved at him then the door and Will nodded immediately and ran up the stairs to Nico’s room. 

“This isn’t good Dad.” Bianca breathed as she shook her head and placed it in her hands. 

Hazel remained quiet but she moved closer to her big sister and began to rub slow circles onto her back. Hades got out of his chair and over to his daughters. He placed one hand on Hazel’s unruly curls and the other on Bianca’s inherited straight, smooth hair and gave each of them a kiss on the top of their heads. 

“He’ll be okay girls. We’ll make sure of it I promise.” Persephone stood as well and hugged her husband from behind and rested her head on his back. “He’ll be okay.”  
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The boy held his head in his hands. 

Why wouldn’t this thing just leave? 

‘BeCAusE yOu WAnt mE HeRE. YoU cRAvE MY pOwEr.’ The voice growled

“I asked for power. Not. Yours.” He whispered defeatedly in reply. 

‘YoU ASkeD foR MY hELp.’

The voice shook his dressers, his mirror, his bookcase, his TV, everything. Everything seemed out of focus. He did ask for its help, he wanted its help, he needed its help. So maybe he did deserve this, but he was. So. Angry. What gives them the right? What gives anyone the right honestly. No…not everyone. Adults. Parents. They acted all high and mighty, but not as high and mighty as rich parents. They feel entitled to everything, even their child’s forgiveness. They feel like they don’t have to work for their relationships, that they can be bought. 

He wanted to teach those parents a lesson, but he needed power.

He needed it. 

He began to sob. Sob and hiccup. Over and over again.

‘YOu aRe weAK. JUst SaY thE WoRds AnD yoU wILl haVe MY PoWEr AT yOUr dISpoSaL.’ 

He was desperate, he had no other choice, if he did he couldn’t think of one, so he did what he thought was the best solution. 

“I give you my consent. I give you my body. Kronos.”

(( Beta Tested, Beta Approved <3 @Honestoafault on the tumbles ))


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are getting more spook

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys. I overextended myself this summer and ended up not having time to update this like I had wamted to. I also just started school so I might get busy again but I'm thinking of giving myself an update schedule. I don't know though, if I do end up making one I'll let y'all know! Love you guys! I hope you enjoy!

“Hey Angel…” Will muttered softly as he reached Nico's room. Said boy was just sitting on his bed and staring off in a daze. But apparently not too much of a daze since he blinked slowly before looking at Will and giving him a small smile.

“Hey.” Was his weak reply. This was a new side of Nico that Will was seeing and if he was being honest, he would have to admit he hated it. Mainly because he knew Nico was hating himself for acting this way. For acting distant and unaware of himself and his surroundings. It was as though he was empty, empty because he didn’t want to feel or perhaps empty because he felt too much. Will couldn’t say for sure which one it was, too be fair though, it looked as though Nico wasn’t entirely sure which one it was either.

“Let’s lay down.” Will whispered as he toed off his shoes and gently coaxed Nico into laying down. Nico complied without a complaint. As he helped Nico get situated, Will would give the smaller male a heads-up anytime he was going to touch him just in case Nico wouldn’t be caught off guard by the touches. He also did it so the boy before him could tell him no if he didn’t want to be touched. So far the blond hadn’t been met with refusal but even as he laid beside his boyfriend he refrained from touching him even though all he wanted to do was hug him. He just looked so frail.

“Did you take your medicine?” A nod as a response.

“Do you need anything?” A shake of a head making the already unruly hair more so.

“Okay. Just let me know if you do.”

“M-Mmkay.” Was the small shaky answer as Nico slowly made his way closer to Will. He continued until his face was practically buried in the blond's chest. There he released a shaky breath. “Hold me?” Nico whispered. Will could tell that that request had taken a lot of courage to ask. Nico was letting down his walls and this was Will’s test so to speak.

“Of course.” Will whispered back with sincerity as he steadily wrapped his arms around the smaller boy's frame. “Can I rub your back?”

A shake of a head again and a small, “sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, Nico. It’s okay. Can I run my fingers through your hair?”

“T-That's okay…” Nico mumbled into his chest as his arms tightened around Will just a tad. Will smiled to himself briefly before he began to card one of his hands through Nico’s thick locks, careful to avoid knots. He still had one arm wrapped around Nico and it would be so easy to pull Nico even closer to himself but he didn’t. Nico would tell him if he wanted him closer, though they were pretty close already. All he could do was wait for Nico and he would gladly do so if it made Nico feel more secure with his surroundings and himself.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, nor did he care. All he cared about was Nico and how he was finally sleeping peacefully. When he had first dozed off, it was a fitful sleep. The smaller boy would groan and whimper and mutter to himself. He would occasionally jolt and move away from Will. The blond learned that when Nico was doing that, that it was best to either not touch him or hold him lightly so he didn’t feel restrained. So far Will was more willing to just not touch Nico and watch over him. Hades and Bianca had come in a couple times to see how Nico was doing. Persephone had come in to do the same as well as tell him that he was more than welcome to spend the night and that if he did decide to, that they would phone home for him. He immediately accepted the offer.

After the fitful sleep came the calm deep sleep, the one that had Nico entangling their legs together and resting his head on Will's chest. Will held Nico gently to him as he began to fall asleep as well. Before he fell asleep he couldn’t help but press a gentle kiss to the top of Nico's head.

“Things will be okay, Angel. I promise. I’ll make sure if it.” He whispered before succumbing to sleep.

___________________

 

Morning came and went with Will waking up and having breakfast with Nico's family as Nico continued to sleep and sleep. He needed it after all.

“When he wakes up we need to ask him more about the…the demon.” Hazel had reasoned to her father, her golden eyes steeled when she made eye contact with the man.

Hades gave his daughter a sharp nod, “I know. Hopefully he’ll be up to talking today. If not then I don’t want you girls pressuring him. We’ll leave him be if that’s the case.”

“Does that happen often?” Will questioned as he helped Persephone do the dishes even though she told him not to. He insisted.

“Not very often but it does happen once in a good while after he has one of those…I wouldn’t call them attacks since we know what one of those look like….one of those happenings. He tends to become a bit unresponsive even after they have occurred.” Hades explained with a sigh as he placed his head into his hands. Will had never seen him this stressed not did he really want to. It was worrying for Hades to look as such.

As they were discussing what to do for the day they heard Nico walk into the kitchen. They carried on with their conversations but in softer voices. They didn’t want Nico to feel awkward so they didn’t stop talking in favor of looking at him. Will gave him a small smile, one the boy returned as he approached his boyfriend and rested his head on his shoulder.

“How are you feeling?”

_________________

 

When Nico woke up his mind felt groggy, more so than normal when he woke up any other given day. He got up slowly and just sat there staring at nothing in particular. He tried to focus on something, anything but it proved to be difficult. He kept doing this until he could feel his mind clearing up. Just to be sure he made himself read one of the posters that hung in his room. He occasionally had to reread something but overall it was a victory to him, so he decided to head downstairs where he could hear his family chatting away. As he got up he noticed a pair of worn out yellow converse, Will's shoes.

_Did he spend the night?_

Once he got downstairs the voices were a bit muffled but Nico could make out Will’s soft voice. He couldn’t help but smile at it. His body still felt drained of energy and he was moving more slowly than he had wanted but hearing his boyfriend’s voice have him a little boost.

Entering the kitchen, Nico was glad that everyone didn’t stop talking when he arrived. They all gave him either smiles or nods and he was happy to send them back, especially to Will, who still seemed to be worried.

“Morning.”

“Afternoon is more like it, Sunshine,” Will teased.

“Really? Oh wow. I didn’t mean to sleep so much.”

Hades chuckled while raising an eyebrow in amusement, “Son, you almost always sleep till noon when you don’t have school.”

“Fair point.” Nico grumbled as he sat at the table beside Will and Bianca.

Bianca pushed over a plate of toast and scrambled eggs over to him and gave him a pointed look. Without saying anything, though he did pout, Nico began to eat his breakfast. He didn’t realize how hungry he was until he actually started eating and then it dawned on him, he was starving! After he finished off the food he searched for anything else he could get his hands on.

Without thinking about it, Will tossed him an apple. He didn’t have to toss it, seeing as they were sitting right next to each other, but he did.  
Hades narrowed his eyes at Will, “It’s a bit early to be thinking about that isn’t it, boy?”

At first, Will was confused. He looked at Hades then to Nico several times before he then glanced at the apple, and back at Hades. His face turned a bright shade of red as he stuttered around an excuse.

Before He could give one though Hades laughed and so did everyone else, well not Nico who was busy devouring the apple. “I'm joking with you, Will.”

The boy seemed to relax and offered up a relieved smile as he rubbed the back of his neck.

After Nico felt full he looked at his family and Will and sighed. “So, about the demon.”

Bianca was the first to react and placed a hand on her baby brother’s hand and gave it a soft squeeze, “ Only if you’re up to it. We don’t want you to be overwhelmed.”

“I’ll be okay. So…I know I said I thought it was a poltergeist,” Nico started as Will grabbed his hand and held it. “But…well…here’s the thing, poltergeist and demons are very similar when it comes to activity. So often enough, they are mistaken for one another, which is really dangerous. Anyways. I got to thinking about everything and then it clicked. It has to be a demon.”

“What do you mean it has to be, Nico?” Hades asked while Persephone nodded signaling that she was confused as well.

“Remember how I said that it’s rare, but poltergeists can attach themselves to someone?” Everyone nodded, “But it’s quite common for a demon to become attached to someone. Like…really common.”

“Okay…do you know who the demon is attached to?” Hazel asked as she frowned into her lap.

“No. Not yet. I need to do some research. School is a great place to start. If a demon really is attached to someone there, I’ll be able to sense it….They have a really strong presence.”

“Then all we can do is wait.” Will stated matter-of-factly.

____________________

 

ThERe Is nO tIMe to WAstE BoY!

“You just have to be patient. School is around the corner. Then our plans will be put into action.”

….YoU'Ve tHOuGht ThIS tHROugH

“Of course I have. Just wait until Monday. Monday will be the start of the end.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (( Beta tested, beta approved ❤ @honestoafault on the tumbles ))


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We are now headed into the action everybody. Nico has no idea what to do, but Luke has a whole plan set out, that will go off without a hitch(or will it??)

His heart felt as though it would break through his ribcage and rip through his muscle and skin. It was Monday. 

Hazel and Nico were still sitting in the car with Jules-Albert despite arriving at the school 15 minutes ago. Nico hated to make Jules wait like this with them but he wanted to at least look calmer than he felt before they walked into school. Hazel understood and stayed with him in the car to help calm his nerves. She held his hands and occasionally swiped her thumbs over his knuckles. It was soothing as well as a bit distracting which was perfect. 

Nico didn’t want to make Hazel late for class, so with one last inhale – exhale exercise that Persephone had taught him, Nico tugged on his backpack and nodded at Hazel. She gave him a soft smile and patted his hands before she opened the door and said goodbye to Jules-Albert. Nico willed his heart to stop pounding as hard and fast as it was, but to no avail because as soon as they got closer to the school, he felt it. 

He felt the energy. God it was practically sizzling against his skin! 

Hazel must have noticed he was sensing something because she quickly grabbed and held his hand as they continued to walk up the steps to the school entrance. 

The sizzling intensified and the air became so heavy, Nico feared it would crush him. He couldn’t pinpoint where the energy began and where it ended. It was like it was the air itself. Everywhere. 

He took another step into the busy hallway and he felt as though he was trying to move in molasses. Slow. So slow. He was moving too slow, his lungs felt tiny, he would take a breath in and his lungs felt ready to pop, like his breath was taking too much space, and every inch of his skin was tingling from the sizzling energy in the air. The energy that was only getting heavier and worse. The demon was in this hall. Nico could feel himself looking around, it was like those scenes from Coraline where she is looking through the stone she was given. Everything in black and white, searching for the color. That was what he was trying to do, see the color. His head was turning slowly, so slowly, or maybe it was moving at a fast pace, he really couldn’t be sure, because all he could see was blue, an overwhelming amount of blue. There was the color. There was the demon. But who was it attached to? Why wasn’t it attacking? Then it was moving further away from Nico. No. No! He needed to follow it. He needed to see who it was attached to. He needed to warn them whoever it was. He could feel himself squeezing and shoving himself into the crowd. Distantly he could hear someone calling his name, but he couldn’t stop, he needed to keep going.

And then the energy was turned towards him, as though the demon could tell it was what Nico was following. Nico stopped moving then. He was like a deer caught in the headlights, the two were in some unseen staring contest. Then it looked away and continued to follow whoever it was attached to, when it did so, Nico felt himself being pulled into a nearby room. Then someone was grabbing his face gently, he knew he was looking at the person who was doing this but he couldn’t focus on who it was, not until he could get his breathing under control. Wait…when did he start to hyperventilate? Oh, it was bad. He felt light headed. The person who was helping him seemed to realize this and gently sat him down in a chair. 

As his head started to clear up, he could hear the mystery person talking to him. 

“You’re doing so good, Angel. Just keep breathing okay? In. Out. In. Out. That’s it. “

“Will?” Nico winced at his hoarse voice and blinked a couple times before he was seeing Will clearly. And Will was clearly worried, if the strained smile was anything to go by. 

“Hey there. How are you feeling?”

“I don’t…I don’t….huh?” 

“You looked like you were having a panic attack. Or at least you were at the start of one.” Will explained as he stroked some of Nico’s hair out of his face. Nico couldn’t help but lean into the touch, some stray tears falling from his lashes down to his legs, he only now noticed he has been crying. 

“It’s here, Will.” He muttered in a small voice. 

“…The…the demon?”

Instead of a verbal response Nico simply nodded. “I don’t know what to do…” He admitted. 

_________________

IntEREstInG… 

“What’s interesting?” Luke hissed as he continued on his planned-out path, he had some people he had to see immediately. 

IT woULd SEeM as tHOugH sOMeoNE cAn SeE Me… CAn seNSE mE

Luke stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide. He could see Annabeth look at him in worry from her spot next to Percy at the lockers. She seemed like she was going to walk up to him so he stood up straighter, squared his shoulders, and his face was devoid of any emotion as he walked further down the hall. He could feel the steel from Annabeth’s eyes follow him, but he knew she wouldn’t follow. He couldn’t afford for her to, she was part of the deal and he would not risk her even accidentally getting involved. 

Making sure no one was inside his zero period room yet, Luke stepped inside and set down his things before looking up at the demon, at Kronos. 

“Who was it?” Luke asked as he began to set his stuff up, candles, paint, and a pocket knife disguised as a key. He had to make sure everything was positioned perfectly, otherwise nothing would work out. 

I KnOW NOt, he waS AT ThE paRTy thoUGH

“Now that’s real helpful, now isn’t it? The whole school was practically there.” Luke quipped. Everything was in place, now all he had to do was wait for Silena, it was easy to tell she had a bit of a crush on him, plus she was a very friendly person, which made it easy to ask her to meet him in the old band room now turned storage. Any minute now she would show up, it might take a bit of convincing for what he wanted to ask of her, but he did have a couple of tricks up his sleeve if the end of their conversation did not convince her. But they would cross that bridge when they got there. For now, he just had to wait. 

Finally, after ten minutes, Silena snuck in and smiled at Luke. “You wanted to see me?” 

Putting on his most friendly smile, Luke made his way over to the girl and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Yes, I did. I was wondering if you could do me a favor.” 

_____________

“Nico, you need to calm down.” Hazel reasoned as she flattened Nico’s wild hair down as best she could. She would remove her hand only for the strands of hair she had been flattening down, only for those strands to stick right back up, but she continued to do so. 

Nico didn’t respond but did lean into her touch as Will held his hand while his thumb caressed Nico’s hand. His mind was numb but at least his heart was calming down. He inhaled, and exhaled, hoping to regulate his breathing. 

Inhale.

Exhale. 

Inhale.

Exhale. 

Inhale. 

Ex- Wait. The energy. Nico could still feel it, but it was subdued, almost like it was in wait. Nico tried to focus in on it, see where it was, but it was pointless. From where they were the energy was muddled, like the scent of air freshener buried it. Nico knew they weren’t prepared. He knew that they could get hurt, but he needed to find out where the demon was and who it was attached to, he had to. So, he pushed himself onto his shaky legs. 

“Nico, what are you doing?” Will asked softly as he held Nico’s arms gently. 

“I need to find it Will, I need to.” 

“Nico, are you crazy? You can’t go searching for the poltergeist!” Hazel shouted. “You could get hurt!”

“She’s right, Nico.” Will agreed as he crossed his arms. 

Nico looked between Will and Hazel as they blocked his path to the door. He wanted nothing more than to stay with them, but he also wanted to find the demon. If he could find it, then he could warn whoever it was attached to. This type of energy wasn’t even normal for a demon. So, it had to be an ancient one. Ancient demons had stronger presences and were harder to get rid of. If this demon was an ancient one, then it would be a whole lot harder to get rid of. If the person who accidentally-God he hopes it was by accident-summoned this demon isn’t aware of how dangerous it can be, this whole ordeal can lead to permanent injury, or worse death. 

“But…I have to help. Whoever it is attached to can get really hurt. I mean, really, really hurt.” Nico pleaded to them, but they didn’t budge. 

“We’ll find a way to help them Nico, we will, but for now we need to prepare. And like you said, they probably don’t even know what they accidentally summoned. For now, nothing should go wrong, right?” Hazel asked as she slowly approached him and wrapped his arms around him, giving him a slight squeeze.

“Hazel’s right. How about we call your dad to come get you? You need to rest Nico, you’re swaying and you have a slight fever.” Will mumbled into Nico’s hair once he made his way over and wrapped his arms around him as well. 

Overwhelmed by everything and not knowing what else to do, Nico agreed.

When they were walking over to the office, they were stopped by either Connor or Travis, they really weren’t sure until they saw a necklace that had a C + M on an arrow. 

Connor walked up to them, he looked worried. “Have you guys seen Silena? We have been looking for her everywhere, she missed first period and Mitchell is worried. “

“Silena? But she never misses class unless she’s sick.” Hazel replied with a small scowl. 

“Yeah I know. That’s why it’s weird. I saw her this morning.” Connor mumbled thoughtfully.

“Maybe she got sick before first period? She could be at the nurse’s office.” Will supplied with a small smile. 

“Maybe. I’ll go check, thanks guys.” Connor said as he waved to them before turning down the hall to get to the nurse’s office. 

“Hopefully he finds her.” Hazel said, her face pinched in worry. “She’s like Nico when he gets sick. Stubborn and childish.” 

Nico would have protested, since that was absolutely not true! But he simply didn’t have the energy to. So, he just let Will and Hazel help him to the office to wait for his dad or Jules Albert to come get him. Will let him rest his head on his shoulder, which he gladly took advantage of, he could feel himself falling asleep, a dream was within his grasps but there was a sharp burst of energy and his skin was sizzling. The hair on the back of his neck was standing straight up, and goosebumps rose in waves over his exposed skin. 

_________________

“No…Luke I can’t! That’s…That’s insane!” Silena yelled out as she was backed up against the door. She watched as several old instrument cases began to levitate before her very eyes. 

“I’m sorry you feel that way Silena, I had hoped to spare him, but I guess he’ll have to be the first one to go.” Luke sighed sarcastically, he swirled his lighter between his fingers and gave her s small pout that stretched into a smirk. 

Silena was confused, one moment she was meeting Luke to help him with something and then he spills out his whole plan to take out any and every parent of a student who went to Demigod. It was psychotic! Did he really hate his father that much? Did he really hate adults that much? There was no way she could partake in his plans. And the cherry on top of everything was the fact that he had asked her to willingly give her body to a demon - a freaking demon! - to help in his plans. The thing was, was that she had to willingly give her body or nothing would work. But there was no way she would do that!

“W-what do you mean? Who is th-the ‘he’?” Silena questioned as she pressed her body closer to the door. 

“Oh? I mean Charles Beckendorf of course. You like him right?” 

Silena didn’t respond but her eyes widened, and her whole face paled.

“So, I’m going to ask again, Silena, I need a hand with this, will you help me?” Luke asked, his eyes gleamed with the power he was hiding, and Silena honestly saw no way out of this. 

“I-I’ll help you. I’ll help you so please don’t hurt him.” She sobbed out as she slid down the door. 

Luke looked rather pleased as he backed off and smiled sweetly at her. “Thank you so much Silena, I promise you won’t regret it. Now. Let’s begin!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta tested, Beta Approved ❤ by @honestoafault on the tumbles


	29. Chapter 29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico discovers a new ability and literally everything is going wrong

They were distant, but he could hear them. Nico could hear voices, which yes, he always did because there were spirits everywhere, but he knew these voices. Which was weird because he remembers being taken to the nurse’s office so that he could wait for his father to pick him up, but Hazel had told him, before he had fallen asleep, that their dad was caught up in a meeting, but he would be here as fast as he could go after it was done. There weren’t many people in the nurse’s office that day and Nico had a pretty good memory, so he knew that the voices he was hearing didn’t belong to anyone in the room. 

The people in the room had been Connor, Mitchell, Will, Hazel, Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and Rachel. And as far as he knew, they were all still there, but there was always the possibility that people had walked in or left. Somehow though, Nico knew that wasn’t it, his instincts were screaming at him to open his eyes but his brain and heart were doing everything they could to tell him not to. 

Instincts won.

Nico opened his eyes and knew immediately that something was off, because instead of laying down on the uncomfortable bed in the nurses office, Nico was standing in darkness with just a touch of light leaking out from under a door at the end of what he assumed was a hallway. The closer he got to the door the louder the voices were. 

One was speaking in Latin, the other was begging. A chill ran down Nico’s spine when he realized that the voice that was begging was Silena. As fast as he could Nico ran towards the door and went to grab the handle only for his hand to go through it. 

For the longest time he did nothing but stand there staring at his hand, even though his instincts were screaming at him to go into the room. He was so confused. How was this happening? Why was this happening?... What was happening? He wished he knew the answer but all he could do was shake himself out of the weird trance-like-feeling that had taken hold of him and get into that room. 

Though he had no idea how to do that if he couldn’t even grab the handle. A stray thought whispered to him to just walk through the door. If he couldn’t grab the handle, then surely, he could walk through the door. He could do it, somehow, he knew that, but he couldn’t make himself do it. He was…scared. Nico didn’t want to go through the door, he didn’t know what it would mean if he could actually go through the door like that stray thought suggested, and he was scared. But he pushed through his fear and took the first step. The best way to describe what he felt as he walked through the solid object was that feeling you get in your stomach and throat when you’re on a rollercoaster and that big drop is coming up, you know it is and you try to prepare yourself for the click that seals your decline, but despite preparing yourself, once you drop, your stomach tightens and drops and the back of your throat tingles like you smelt a sour candy. It was odd, and Nico really didn’t know how he felt about it, but all that left his mind once his eyes fixated on the scene in front of him. 

It was Luke…or something that looked like Luke, his skin was too pale and blotchy, his eyes were pure black, the whites and all, blisters littered his body at random, and the smile he wore was too wide. He looked…scary, and that was never something that Nico associated with Luke. He always seemed…average but cool, and safe. Luke had always seemed safe, nothing like how he was now. Nico couldn’t even look down at what he assumed was a pentagram on the floor, it shined too brightly and burned his eyes. 

“Please, please don’t make me do this! Please, Luke!” Silena screamed from the corner of the room Nico assumed she was trying to make herself feel safe in. 

Her hair was ratty and wild, which it never was, she was sweating buckets and her nails were digging so hard into her skin that she made herself bleed. Luke, or whatever looked like Luke twisted his head to an extreme angle just so he could smile wickedly over at Silena. Though he was smiling his eyebrows were furrowed together, and when he did turn his head that obscenely gross amount, Nico could hear the bones cracking from the force, and it seemed like Silena could too because she winced with every crack and pop that echoed in the room. 

“I'm sorry, but Luke is no longer here. You may call me Kronos, your new god.” Luke, or Kronos stated. His voice was so deep and it was like other smaller voices said the same thing at the same time giving his voice an eerie echo. That voice sent a shiver down Nico’s spine. 

“Kro-Kronos? What did you do to Luke?” Silena yelled out.

“I think the better question is, what am I going to do to you?” Kronos responded as he fully turned to face Silena and slowly stalked over to her. The grin on his face only grew larger, Luke's lips had been so chapped that various parts of his lips ripped causing a little blood to spill out of all the tiny rips especially at the corners of his mouth. Silena was sobbing at this point and shaking her head, she tried to push herself more into the wall, trying to escape the inevitable. Luke’s body got closer and closer and the more it did, the more Silena screamed and the more Nico’s heart pounded loudly in his chest as he watched it all. He felt so useless, if he couldn’t even grab a handle, how was he supposed to help? No he had to try. So, Nico focused all of his energy into grabbing Luke by the elbow and pulling with all the strength he could muster in this form and yelled at the top of his lungs, “NO!” 

Nico didn’t know if it would even work, he had kind of expected it not to, but he had hoped it would. Surprising not only him, but Kronos, it did and they both ended up sprawled on the floor, though Kronos passed through Nico like fog. Both were silent and still, Nico held his breath as he watched Kronos just lay there on the floor. Silena remained in her spot in the corner, she was watching Kronos as well but she was poised as though she was planning to run. Nico wanted to warn her not to, the energy around them was overwhelming, it was popping, crackling, sizzling, and oddly, Nico could see it do so in a multitude of color. Blue hues were popping, purple hues were crackling, and yellow and green hues were sizzling. It was bizarre for Nico because he had never had the ability to see energy like this, he was able to see spirits and their auras pretty well, but nothing like this. Due to the sights around him, Nico scuffled back and stood up, inching his way over to Silena.

“Silena, you need to run! You need to get out of here!” He shouted, and he watched Luke, no Kronos spasm. His arms were bending at freakish angles and his back was arching, he was making weird sounds, like gurgling or roaring or some hellish combination of both. Of course, though, Silena did not hear him. 

Nico let out a desperate groan and focused his energy in his hands, he immediately grabbed the shaking girl before him by the shoulders and roughly pushed her towards the door. “Go!” 

It seemed like she got the message because she snapped out of her shocked state and began to run towards the door, Nico watched as his heart hammered in his ears. He thought she was going to make it, but then he heard a strange noise, Silena must have also heard it because she turned around to look and screamed. Nico slowly turned to see what she was looking at and the scream he was going to release caught in his throat. He watched as Luke’s body slowly lifted itself up to stand. This wasn’t someone sitting up and pushing themselves up to stand. No. Luke’s body went from lying completely still on the ground, and from his sneaker covered heels, rose up till he was standing upright. It looked as though his features were glitching out. His head whipped back and forth, His head whipped back and forth, and he groaned and whined before he lifted his head and looked directly at Nico. And then he smiled, and Nico had never felt more in danger during his encounters with paranormal entities than he did now. “Looks like a fly found it’s way in here. Mmmm…a psychic, huh? I bet you think you’re something special just because you are able to manifest yourself here. Think you’re some kind of hot shot, do you? You listen to me, and you listen well, boy. I’ve killed many of your kind and I’ll take great joy in doing the same to you.” Kronos laughed. 

Nico felt cold, so cold. This…this was more than he was capable of handling. He took a step back from Kronos, hoping that by putting some distance between them would help Nico better control his fear. 

“Who the hell are you talking to? Let me out of this room!” Silena yelled as she pushed and pulled at the door, it wouldn’t budge, not even a little bit. 

Kronos laughed again as he slowly walked toward Nico, who continued to back away from him not breaking eye contact. “A friend of yours. Nico.”

“Nico?” Silena stopped her attempts at escaping, she looked completely baffled. “That’s not funny.” 

No…It’s not. Nico thought, he was sure all color drained out of him and he must have resembled the flour covered people, people used to believe were what ghosts looked like from the old movies. The energy around them grew more intense and felt like it was squeezing every part of Nico’s body, like it was trying to squeeze him out of existence. How did he know his name? 

“I’m being serious. I’ll dispose of him first, then I’ll deal with you.” Kronos declared as he took a big step towards Nico who, in a panic back away so fast it felt like he got slingshot through the air and the next thing he knew he was his body lurched forward and he was gasping for air. Tears were freely falling from his eyes and his hands clutched at his shirt. Air. He needed air goddammit! Every hair on his body was standing on end. That…had just happened. Nico felt someone touching his arms, his face, they were trying to get him to look at them. That had really just happened. There was two voices yelling at him, Hazel and Will he recognized. 

“Is he okay?” That was Connor.

“I don’t know, it doesn’t seem like he can breathe!” Hazel sounded so worried. He just had to catch his breath. If he could do that he could comfort her, tell her not to worry. Though she should worry, they all should. Nico had to tell them. 

“Come on Angel breath. In, out, in out. Where the hell is the nurse!?” He had never heard Will sound so desperate. 

“I don’t know, she said she’d be back right away.” That was Mitchell, he sounded stressed. 

“….ilena…” Nico finally gasped out. 

“Hey, hey, Angel. How are you feeling? Can you breathe? Are you okay?” Will asked in a soft voice as he pushed Nico’s bangs out of his face and searched his eyes. 

Nico shook his head and pushed Will’s hands away and stepped out of bed, only to almost black out. Will quickly grabbed him by his sides and held him up. Everyone in the room watched in worry as Nico desperately tried to tell them they need to get to Silena.

“You need to lay down. The nurse should be here soon.” Will said as he tried to place Nico back in bed, but Nico only shook his head harder and tried to push away.

“Sil…ena…we…we have to go…”

“Silena? What about Silena?” Mitchell asked as he rushed over to Nico.

“Help…she needs help…we…the old band room. We need to get to that room…now!” Nico pushed out as he used Will to help him stand up.

“What do you mean she needs help?” Connor asked as he walked up to Mitchell and placed his hand on his shoulder.

“How do you know she needs help?” Mitchell questioned.

“That’s not important! We need to go now!” Nico shouted and pointed to the door. He knew he sounded crazy, and he knew he was doing nothing to help his friends not worry about him, but they needed to go! They needed to get to Silena before it was too late. And maybe it was the tone of his voice or the look in his eyes but everyone hesitantly led him out of the nurses office, class was still in session so the halls were clear and eerily silent. Once Nico felt the strength return to his body he stopped leaning on Will but did take his hand and give it a slight squeeze, one Will returned. Then he led them out of the Student Services building and headed straight towards the Performing Arts building.

They were all jogging, when they had started Nico didn’t know, all Nico knew was the more stairs they went down, the more halls they jogged/ran through, the stronger the energy got and the more the stench of sulfur surrounded them. 

“What is that smell?” Connor asked as he plugged his nose.

“Sulfur. It means we’re getting close.” Nico answered simply as he picked up his speed, Will easily following along his side and refusing to let his hand go. 

“How could he know that?” Connor tried to whisper to Mitchell, key word being tried.

“I don’t know…he kind of sounds like…” Mitchell started as they continued to run, even skipping some steps on the way down. 

“Like?”

Mitchell didn’t get the chance to answer that once they reached the bottom level of the Performing Arts building because he coughed at the absolutely intense stench of sulfur, it was suffocating. Everyone else was covering their noses in some way, Mitchell brought his shirt up over his nose, Connor brought both hands over to cover his nose, Will used his free hand to plug his nose, and Hazel grabbed her hair and held it under her nose to at least get a nice smell. Nico did none of those, he was used to this smell whenever he was in the presence of a negative entity. Of course, none of the ones he had experienced before hand were ever this bad. He did however wrinkle his nose at the putrid smell. Nico slowed his run down to cautious steps, making the others do the same.

“What’s wrong?” Will whispered.

Nico looked around, immediately he knew something was wrong, especially since he heard Silena’s voice, now calm and sickeningly sweet. “Hide.” He hissed to the others, thank god these basement classes and halls were being used as storage or else they wouldn’t have had any time to hide before Silena walked down another hall with Ethan Nakamura and Chris Rodriguez towards the room Nico now recognized as the one he had seen when he was asleep. 

“Sil-“Hazel had started but Nico quickly clamped his hand over her mouth and watched from their hiding spot behind a tower of boxes the odd trio as his heart tried it’s best to overtake his hearing. 

“What was that?” Ethan asked as he turned his head.

“Probably a mouse. It wouldn’t surprise me; this place is filthy.” Chris responded, but when they both spoke, it felt wrong, it was their voices, but there was something about them that had Nico on edge.

“You two! Hurry it up, we can’t keep Kronos waiting. It’s almost time.” Silena spoke as she turned around to glare at the two. 

That’s when Nico felt Hazel gasp against his hand, and he nearly did as well when he noticed her eyes, they were completely black. They were too late, Silena had already become a follower of Kronos, and it would seem that Chris and Ethan were also followers of his. Nico felt a wave of guilt wash over him, he hadn’t been fast enough to save her, and now two other classmates were possessed by what Nico could only assume were lower level demons. The two boys, or whatever they were now, nodded and stood ram rod straight at Silena’s words. 

“You’re right.” Ethan, or whatever was wearing his skin, stated before they all begun to walk towards the room again. 

Once they were out of sight and hearing range, Nico took his hand off of Hazel’s mouth. She turned to look at him and her mouth opened and closed around silent words, her eyes were wide and questioning. Nico sighed and looked at the others to see similar expressions. 

“That is no longer Silena. Nor Ethan. Nor Chris. They…they were possessed.” Nico explained in a quiet voice. Before any of them could give him a response, Nico’s ears tingled, he took a deep breath in at the odd feeling and before he knew it he was back in that awful room alongside Silena, Ethan, and Chris. None of them seemed to notice him but Nico didn’t want to take any chances and prayed to whatever higher power he could think of to make his presence unknown, and still after the short prayer, he hid himself behind a couple boxes near the door.

“Did you get what I asked?” Kronos asked. 

“Yes, brother.” The demon inside of Silena answered and a voice far deeper than anything she could possibly achieve came out, it made Nico shiver. Then the thing reached into Silena’s backpack and pulled out a long rolled up piece of paper. 

“Did they suspect anything?” Kronos asked as he snatched the roll of paper away and opened it to reveal a blueprint of the whole campus. Nico’s eyes widened, ‘What would they need that for?’

“Of course not, I was the perfect little spy~!” The demon in Silena sang in her voice and ran a hand through her hair.

“Well done, Krios. This will make things a lot easier. The kid had the plan to only keep the children in this building hostage until the parents showed up, but I think he wasn’t seeing the potential of a bigger plan. Why only take this building hostage, why not take them all? And why only take hostages? We have the opportunity to create the perfect world for chaos. We’ll feed off that energy, we’ll feed on the children. I may have promised the kid I wouldn’t harm one person, but the others are fair game.” Kronos ranted as he pinned the blueprint up on the wall with a pocket knife. “Oceanus.” He called to Ethan.

“Yes, my brother?”

“Have you done your part in this?”

“I have done that and more. All the teachers I could find unguarded are locked in the basement of the building called ‘A Building.’ They won’t be getting out of there anytime soon, chains are quite the helper.” Oceanus, who was using Ethan’s body laughed. “I had a hard time with a visitor though. He may prove to be a problem.”

“Speak his name.”

“Poseidon, my brother. He was here to visit his kid, Percy. Friend to that little psychic you mentioned.”

“I see. Kill him once the plan is in motion. I leave that duty in your hands, and if you shall fail, it will be your death. Hyperion, how are things going on your end?” Kronos asked as he motioned to Chris. 

“I’ve learned my plan well and have already cleared out the Student Services building of any one troublesome, it won’t be any trouble to make the announcement and set the plan into motion.”

“Good. Once all the children of this horrid place gather in the gymnasium, make sure to keep them there. If any of them try to escape…Deal. With. Them. Accordingly.” 

“Of course, my brother.”

Kronos smiled his wicked smile and laughed. “Then let’s get started. First the announcement, and then we put this place on lockdown. No one gets in, and no one most certainly gets out.”

“I will make haste Kronos.” Hyperion smirked as he went to leave the room.

Nico needed to warn the others, they needed to warn everyone. Nico’s body tingled all over and then he was back in his body with his boyfriend, sister, and friends in their hiding spot. He looked at all of them as he caught his breath. Again, they looked worried, and Nico couldn’t blame them, he probably was a sight, he was sweating and panting and shaking, he could feel it. Whatever that was that he was doing, it took a lot out of him. 

“We need to go. We need to warn everyone.” He said in a rush as he stood up and pulled everyone to their feet, he pushed them all in the direction of the stairs, urging them to move.

“Warn them? About what? What happened? Why did you zone out like that?” Will asked as they ran up the stairs and out of the performing art building, they needed to get to Student Services so that they could make an announcement before Hyperion got there. Though the demon was in a human body, Nico knew demons could still move at incredible speeds despite a mortal suit. 

“Kronos, Kronos is going to do something awful, I don’t know what exactly, but I know it is something bad. Everyone is in a lot of trouble!” Nico yelled.

“Kronos? Who the hell is Kronos?” Connor yelled out in response.

“A demon! At least one of them!”

“A demon!?” Mitchell screeched.

“One of them?” Hazel asked.

“There is a total of four of them and they have something, some plan they are trying to pull off, and whatever it is, it’s going to do some major harm to everyone.” 

So, they ran as though their lives depended on it, which it very well may have but as they ran Nico noticed a figure smiling at him from the stairs of the Student Building, it was Hyperion in Chris’s body, he waved at Nico before he was no longer there. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. It didn’t matter that they had made it to the building because when they tried the doors, they wouldn’t budged. They were locked.

“Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.” Nico chanted as he gripped his hair harshly and looked around. They couldn’t just run to every building and warn anyone who would listen, they probably wouldn’t even believe them!

“What do we do now?” Connor screamed as he held Mitchell close to him. 

“I don’t know. I don’t know what to do.” Nico panicked.

“What’s wrong? Nico are you okay?” Nico and the others turned to see Grover, Percy, Annabeth, Rachel, Charles, and Clarisse standing near the building carrying books. 

“What are you guys doing here?” Will asked.

“We were heading to the library. We have to work in groups on a project for Biology.” Annabeth answered. “Now what is going on? Nico, why are you freaking out?” 

In response the worried boy let out a stressed sound. “I can’t explain it really well right now, but the school is in danger and we need to warn everyone. We can’t let them go to the gym!”

Just when Annabeth was going to question him further they heard the familiar chime of the intercom system ring out before the monotonous voice of the school secretary, Mr. Dionysus, reached their ears, but Nico knew that wasn’t really him, he knew. “Would all students please make their way to the gymnasium, there is an urgent matter that the principal would like to discuss with you. To the teachers we are very sorry about the inconvenient and sudden announcement, to be fair I barely found out too, but this is a very important matter, it’s about school safety so we would be ever so greatly appreciative if you hurried on over. This has been an announcement from the administration office. God, I swear I’m going to quit one day…Shit is this thing still on?” 

Once the announcement was made, Nico felt his heart drop as he watched student by student flow out of the building and making their way to the gym. What did they do now?

 

((Beta Tested, Beta Approved ❤ @honestoafault ))


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